Mother Church celebrates Sunday, July 02, 2023, as the 13th Sunday of ordinary time, year A. In the entrance antiphon we pray: “All nations, clap your hands. Shout with a voice of joy to God. Amen.”
This week’s liturgy continues to instruct us on the elements of Christ discipleship. We are called, in the first reading from Second Kings, to open our hearts and homes, not only to the prophets but also to the poor, the needy, the orphan in much the same way as the woman of Shunem welcomes the prophet Elisha and is abundantly rewarded for her kindness. The same message flows through Matthew’s Gospel where Jesus declares: “Anyone who welcomes a prophet because he is a prophet will have a prophet’s reward.” Christ our Lord calls for wholehearted generosity from those of us who follow him. In the second reading from Romans, Paul tells us that at baptism our lives are joined forever to the Cross of Christ.
First reading: Second Kings 4: 8-11, 14-16.
One day Elisha came to Shunem, where there was a woman of influence, who urged him to dine with her. Afterward, whenever he passed by, he used to stop there to dine. So she said to her husband, "I know that Elisha is a holy man of God. Since he visits us often, let us arrange a little room on the roof and furnish it for him with a bed, table, chair, and lamp, so that when he comes to us he can stay there." Sometime later Elisha arrived and stayed in the room overnight. Later Elisha asked, "Can something be done for her?" His servant Gehazi answered, "Yes! She has no son, and her husband is getting on in years." Elisha said, "Call her." When the woman had been called and stood at the door, Elisha promised, "This time next year you will be fondling a baby son."
Comment
There are two books of Kings in the Bible, commonly known as First and Second Kings. The African Bible tells me that the two Books of Kings cover about four centuries of Israel’s history, marked by three main events: the first is the united monarchy (during which time Israel and Judah remained united under Solomon as they had been under Saul and David); the second event is the divided monarchy (from the rebellion of Israel against the rulership of the Judean kings until Israel was carried off into captivity by the Assyrians); and the third is the period of the surviving kingdom, which record Judah’s history from the deportation of Israel to Judah’s own defeat and exile by the Babylonians.
Both Books of Kings serve, therefore, as a record of the kings of both Israel and Judah, showing the decline of the northern and southern kingdoms and pointing out the reasons for this decline and the fate of each king. The sacred author seems to have intended to teach the people of Israel in exile in Babylon the reasons for their plight so that they could learn from the errors of the past. He instructs the exiles by demonstrating to them that through their kings they have been unfaithful to God’s covenant but that God, far from abandoning Israel, has remained loyal and patient with them.
Two prophets play a significant role in the Books of King: Elijah and Elisha. Elijah is a very courageous man, who has been denouncing the abuses of power and the violation of justice by those in authority. He has had to flee from the fury of those in power to take refuge in the desert. That is where he receives God’s command to anoint Elisha as his successor. Elisha is important to Elijah because he will carry on Elijah’s mission. Elisha is to Elijah what Joshua is to Moses, each completing his master’s work.
The passage selected for our meditation shows God blessing the childless woman with the gift of motherhood because of her kindness to his prophet, Elisha. The main purpose of this story is to illustrate our Lord’s words in the Gospel that anyone who welcomes a prophet because he is a prophet will have a prophet’s reward.
The theme of hospitality runs through all the readings of this day. By opening the door of her home to Elisha, the noble woman of Shunem not only welcomes the prophet but also the one who sends the prophet, that is, God Almighty himself. Just as her hospitality goes beyond what is expected of her, her reward too goes beyond her wildest expectation: she receives the gift of a long-desired child.
Another message is the power of the prophet’s prayer, indeed anyone else’s prayer, when done with faith. But we also learn that when God gives a gift, no matter how surprisingly and unexpectedly (such as the gift of a son to this woman), he also gives the grace to conserve and make it bear fruit.
What lesson can we take home from this reading? We are called in this reading, and in all the other readings of this day, to welcome strangers and be generous to them. The person who knocks on our door and gets turned away may be a prophet bringing us long-desired blessings. Let us pray for the courage to welcome and be nice to strangers, especially migrants who have left their country of origin in search of a better life in another country. As Pope Francis once said, as he prayed for migrants, “The Lord has a particular concern for foreigners, widows and orphans, for they are without rights, excluded and marginalized. We must pay special attention to the strangers in our midst as well as to widows, orphans and all the outcasts of our time.” We bring them in our prayers to Jesus Christ, the risen Lord who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, One God forever and ever. Amen.
Second Reading: Romans 6: 4-5, 8-11.
Brothers and sisters:
Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life. If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over him. As to his death, he died to sin once and for all; as to his life, he lives for God. Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.
Comment
Paul continues his reflection from last Sunday on how Christ has, through Baptism, reversed the stronghold sin, death and the law hold over us. The universal dominion of sin, which began with the sin of Adam, is not the only event to be reckoned with. When sin reached its full extent, the grace Christ brought redeemed us from sin. Through Baptism this grace reaches each of us and frees us from the control of sin. When we receive this sacrament, we renounce sin once and for all and are born again into a new life.
This passage reveals the key truths concerning Baptism, reminding us of the profound meaning of this rite which Christ established, its spiritual effects in Christians and its far-reaching consequences on our Christian lives, that is a new birth and death to sin. This new life of grace pours into the soul, enabling the person to share in the resurrection of Christ.
Baptism is therefore a sacrament of God’s hospitality to us. “Through baptism into death we are buried with him, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live a new life.” Through baptism, therefore, we have new life as we live with God and for God. Baptism symbolically represents Christ’s death, burial and resurrection.
The baptized person is someone newly created, someone born into a new life, someone who has moved out of darkness into light. Baptism, which is also described as “the door of the spiritual life”, unites a person to Christ and to the Church by means of grace, which makes us children of God and heirs to heaven.
Christ suffered physical death, but in baptism we die spiritually to sin. Jesus Christ chose to bear all the consequences of sin, even though he was sinless. His voluntary death on the cross and his glorious resurrection broke the bonds of death, for himself and for all of his own. Death no longer has dominion over his believers.
Let us renew our baptismal vows through this prayer of the Church: “All powerful and merciful God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who freed me from sin and spiritual death, and gave me the new life of grace through water and the Holy Spirit, I renew my baptismal vows and rededicate my life to your loving protection so that, day by day, I may grow in your knowledge, love and service, through Christ our Lord. Amen.”
Gospel acclamation: “Alleluia, alleluia. Open our hearts, O Lord, to accept the words of your Son. Alleluia.”
Gospel: Matthew 10: 37-41
Jesus said to his apostles: "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. "Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward. And whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because the little one is a disciple— amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward."
Comment
I owe the reflection on this day’s Gospel to a considerable extent to Cameroonian Jesuit Priest Stephen Kizito Forbi whose beautiful book, Harden not your Hearts, Sunday Gospel Reflections Year A, served as a good guide to me.
The gospel text of this day also dwells on the theme of hospitality. To be hospitable, that is, to be welcoming to people is to be cordial, generous and open-minded to them. A person who is not hospitable is generally unfriendly, not kind-hearted and not open to other people. Hospitality, therefore, supposes that we know what people need and have as a gift to satisfy those needs. We are willing to be attentive to their needs and to help them to satisfy those needs. We create space in our home and in our hearts where a stranger, like the prophet Elisha, in the first reading, can feel welcome and understood.
The kind of hospitality the readings of this day invite us to live is not that of doling out money to people. That is not bad hospitality, though. It is good if we can give money to those who don’t have. However, the hospitality we are called upon to practice is that of spending one’s life gloriously for God and for others, thus generating a new life for oneself. This involves hospitality in thought and word: thinking and speaking well of people, especially if they are not present, as the noble woman Shunem does for Elisha. It means forgiving people as God forgives us our trespasses, thus welcoming us to share his life. It entails encouraging others as Christ encouraged his disciples so they would live their life to the fullest in the service of others.
We should ensure that our hospitality becomes a new way of life. A story is told of a pig that was jealous of the cow because people liked the cow more. The pig walked up to the cow and asked her in a lamenting way: “Why do people like you more than me and all you give them is milk and cream? As for me, I give them everything; I give them bacon, ham, brittles, trotters. In short, everything I have, yet they don’t like me. Why?” The cow responded: “It is because you only give all you have when you’re dead. People like me because I give them milk and cream while I am still alive.”
Let our hospitality be like the cow’s generosity. Let’s make it real and alive. Let it create and sustain life rather than kill it. Let’s give now instead of leaving what we have behind as an inheritance which may not benefit many people.
In the Eucharist, Christ welcomes us to his table as a good host so that we may have eternal life. All who partake in it are challenged to be open to the needs of the world. The Church must show domestic hospitality to the need, especially those fleeing conflicts that are raging in the north, the northwest and southwest regions of our country. A Christian assembly is not its beautiful architecture and art but rather the beauty of the place where we can, with Christ, wash the dust off the feet of tired strangers, offer comfort to the sick and the afflicted.
There are at least three reasons why we should be hospitable: first, God is and has been hospitable to us, second, the stranger and the needy need our hospitality, and third, God commands that we be welcoming to the stranger. If hospitality were simply a duty, these three reasons would be sufficient. But, hospitality is not simply a duty but a virtue because it is its own reward. Our world today beckons us to open our eyes and see the people who are in need of our hospitality: street children, a neighbour in pain and in need of our attention, a cause that needs our support either in Church or in the quarter where we live.
We are not called to be generous to people only with our money. Being generous with money is good, but we are called upon to be also generous with our time. Let’s take the time off our busy schedule to attend to the needs of our neighbour, be they physical, material or spiritual.
Christian hospitality should and must manifest the hospitality of the Kingdom of God. It must reach out to everyone in need, irrespective of creed, culture, sex, race, colour, age or social status. Christian hospitality must be colour-blind. It must create friendship. It must be generous not calculated; it must be honest service not a strategy to advance ourselves. This is the height of being alive.
Let us ask the Holy Spirit to help us to be generous, to be hospitable, especially to the stranger as we say this prayer which our beloved Saint John Paul II composed and left to the Church: “God our Father, in Jesus, your Son, you have welcomed all men and women as your children. He became a brother and a friend to all, especially the poor and the dispossessed. We pray to you, Father of all men and women, deliver the world from the evil of selfishness and violence. Help us to love all men and women as you love them: unconditionally and without limits. Hear our prayer through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord and God, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.
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