7/2/2023 - 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Discipleship and its Challenges 
The catechesis on discipleship presented in today's Sunday gospel reading consists of two stages. Jesus lays out the first requirement for becoming a disciple: the ability to make Jesus the primary allegiance of the disciple and to follow the Master down the path of love and self-denial. In the second, Jesus offers a reward to those who warmly welcome the "Kingdom" missionaries. This second step is mirrored in the first reading from the 2 Kings chapter 4. Here, we hear about the warm welcome that Elisha receives from a Shunammite woman. The woman not only provided Elisha with food whenever he passed through Shunem on his way to or from Mount Carmel, but she also constructed a small room for him and outfitted it with whatever he might need. This is because she knew Elisha to be a holy man of God, a conduit through whom God intervenes in the world. By assisting Elisha, the woman demonstrates her faith in God and her willingness to participate in God's plan of salvation for the world. Elisha blesses the woman with a son as a reward for her kindness. Due to her husband's advanced age and her probable sterility, having children is nearly impossible for the couple, making the reward all the more meaningful. Collaboration with God in carrying out His plan of salvation for humanity is a source of life and blessing, and this is a lesson that our story of salvation aims to teach. Those who work with God will always be rewarded. Baptism is a way for Christians to show they are committed to following Jesus down the road of love. The second reading thus reminds us that a Christian is one who, through Baptism, has joined Jesus on the way of love and has forsaken sin forever.

Today's Gospel lesson is the climax of Jesus' great "missionary discourse," in which He teaches His twelve disciples about the sacrifice and reward of following him. Jesus makes it abundantly clear that he is supreme over everything, including our own families. However, this does not give us permission to disregard the needs of others. If we claim to be Christians and to follow Jesus' teachings and example, we must show genuine care for those around us. Whoever welcomes and serves Jesus' followers is actually welcoming and serving Jesus Himself, according to Jesus. Mother Theresa of Kolkata would never tire in reminding her helpers that we meet God face to face in the broken body of Christ in any person in pain.

If we claimed to be Christians but failed to live as though we believed the gospel, there would be a serious problem. If we claimed to be believers in brotherly love but acted otherwise, we would be lying to ourselves. Faith without good deeds is dead – wrote St. James in his letter.

We come together at the Eucharist to pray as brothers and sisters in Christ and as family to one another. The final words of the Holy Mass are a call to action: "Go now to love and serve the Lord." After receiving the teachings of God and partaking of Christ's Body and Blood, we are commissioned to love and serve the Lord by loving and serving one another. After praying, and especially after praying for those in greatest need, we should focus on our fellow believers.

For three years, Oscar Romero served as the Archbishop of San Salvador. On March 24, 1980, he was killed while celebrating the Holy Mass. He proclaimed in a homily, "A religion of Sunday Masses but unjust weekdays do not please the Lord, a religion of much prayer but with hypocrisy in the heart is not Christian”. Fr Tom Kunnel, C.O