Fr Antony Christy, SDB –
July 2, 2023 – 13th Sunday in Ordinary time
2 Kings 4: 8-11, 13-16; Romans 6: 3-4,8-11; Matthew 10: 37-42
Are we ready to receive God? We would say immediately an enthusiastic “yes”! But before saying that let us just take a moment to reflect on what it would actually cost us.
Just yesterday we reflected on ‘the Lord who passes by’ – with the example of Abraham who received God who was passing by and the centurion who went to encounter the Lord who was passing by. The imagery today is not the Lord who is passing by, the Lord who wishes to accost us. The Lord comes to meet us and what would our response be? Get busy in what we are up to and lose God; or dare to Receive God? Yes, we have to dare to receive the Lord, because it is indeed a challenge… not just one, but at least threefold.
First of all, when we intend to receive the Lord, we shall be challenged by God, by the very presence of God… because anyone who prefers a person or a thing or an ideology or a ritual or a sacrifice to God, we shall be deemed unworthy of the Lord. When we let God enter our lives, we cannot remain the same.
We can think of any number of examples… for instance the personality that we have been thinking all through the week – Abraham. He was an unknown man of Ur living with his people and Yahweh enters his life. From the moment Abraham received the Lord into his life, he had to undergo many sacrifices… to give up his place, give up his people, give up his private life, give up so many things because he received the Lord. But his faithfulness paid. He is today the Father of our faith and held high in the eyes of faith.
Instead the people of Gerasene, refused to receive the Lord – we see that episode in the Gospels of Mark and Luke. They refused to receive the Lord because they were not prepared to face the challenges the Lord would bring to them – challenges that would change their life style, their life priorities and their values in life. Just like they missed their swine, we may be attached to some of our own typical attachments and fixations. We may be willing to receive the Lord, but are we ready to be challenged by the Lord. Our life style, our priorities and our value system are they compatible with the Lord whom we wish to receive? That is a challenge.
Secondly, when we are ready to receive the Lord, we shall be challenged by God’s Message, and that message shall be the cross on which we shall die, to be born anew, to be born to eternal life! God’s Message is not always a soothing balm, it can be fire and brimstone at times, calling into question a number of factors in our life.
When Paul speaks of ‘considering ourselves dead to sin,’ he indicates a radical choice for God – a choice between life and death. Just as Paul himself, and all the other apostles, who were almost all of them, destined to lay down their lives for the Message of Christ. They were ready for it. They received the Lord and they received along with that the challenge too. Peter who tried to deny Jesus, all other apostles who ran for their lives, Paul who was against Jesus…every one of them, laid his life down for the believing in and proclaiming the message.
Unlike Herod whom we see was happy to listen to John, but did not want to change himself, we are called to accept the challenge of God’s Message if we are truly ready to receive the Lord. It may cost our simple pleasures, or our convenience, or our acceptability in the eyes of the world, but we would have to take up the challenge, if we are sincere about receiving the Lord.
Thirdly, one who is ready to receive the Lord, shall be challenged by God’s Messengers – be it blessings or curse, be it difficulties or graces, be it troubles or miracles, we have to endure it for the sake of the Lord. The question here is who are God’s Messengers.
As long as someone does good to us, does things that please us, fulfils our curiosity and feeds our necessities, we are happy to accept them as Messengers of God. The moment someone begins to challenge our ways, criticize our so-called customs and traditions that are not in any way ‘godly’, we begin to reject the person, critique the person and even plan to get rid of the person as far as it is within our capacity. Just as Jesus says, if we give even a single cup of water to the persons who are sent to us, we shall be blessed, so shall we be despicable in the presence of the Lord if we despise persons who are in need and who come to us for help.
Assisting those who come to us for help, reaching out to those who are in need even without their asking for it, wishing the good of the other in so much as being crushed in the heart to see someone somewhere suffer, doing whatever is within my power to counter hatred and injustice in the world, making way for peace, harmony and justice – these are various levels at which we receive the Lord. When we receive persons in the name of the Lord, we receive God, and only by that we become persons of the Reign of God.
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005, who has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (Specialisation in Catechetics). He has completed his doctoral research in Theology at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the Young towards a World of Peace and Dialogue is the passion that fires him on.