Discipleship-Commitment-Compassion-Georges Vanier

HOMILY SUNDAY 13 – A

Discipleship as Commitment and Compassion

(2 Kings 4:8-12a, 14-17; Psalm 89; Romans 6:3-4, 6-11; Mt 10:37-42)

************************************************************

Do you see yourself as a disciple of Jesus?

Discipleship involves commitment and compassion.

Jesus sends his disciples out with clear directions. His primary concern is that we are to put God first in our lives through a total faith commitment to God. Second, we are to find God in others through hospitality and compassion.

With regard to putting God first, Jesus states categorically that, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.” It is clear that returning God’s love must be our priority. Our love for God must be selfless and not dependent on what we can get from God.

Putting God first means taking up our cross and accepting some suffering, for God’s sake. It means dying to sin as a way of living out our baptism. It is in losing our life that we will find it. This kind of faith commitment expresses itself especially by commitment to weekly worship and daily prayer.

An example of this kind of discipleship faith would be Georges Vanier, former governor general of Canada. Whenever possible, he went to daily mass and spent time in contemplation. My own family, as I grew up on the prairies, was another good example. Though we lived eight miles away from the nearest church, we filled the car every Sunday and made our way on gravel roads to mass. During the months of May and October, we would kneel around the kitchen table and pray the rosary together as a family. Discipleship means putting God first through faith commitment.

Finding God in others is the second part of discipleship. In this regard, Jesus says plainly, “Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me, welcomes the one who sent me.” To be a disciple of Jesus is to be able to see Jesus in others.

A good example of this is Mother Theresa of Calcutta. One of her sayings was this: “What you would want to do to Jesus, whom you cannot see, do to the person next to you, whom you can see, and you will be doing it to Jesus.” She taught her sisters to treat others as if they were Jesus himself. She had no double standard and found Jesus especially in the poor.

The poor are always being given to. If we want to help them, then we must allow them to give something to us. This humility on our part gives them dignity, which is what they really need. Discipleship means finding God in others through hospitality and compassion.

According to the New Interpreters Bible, this gospel text reflects a real situation in Mathew’s church, where people had to sometimes choose between their family and their faith. This affirms the community of disciples as Christ’s true family, as the family of God where ties are closer and more demanding than natural family ties. The claim that loyalty to Jesus has priority over even the closest human relationships and life itself implies a deep Christology. Discipleship is not an added duty, but a giving of self that is the ultimate self-fulfillment. Jesus here claims for himself what only God can appropriately claim. The discourse that begins with the conferring of authority on the disciples concludes with the necessity of sharing Jesus’ cross as well. Matthew and his readers are looking back not only on the cross of Jesus, but the martyrdom of Christians that had already taken place.

This discourse reveals in concentrated form what the Christian life essentially is: confession of God’s acts in Jesus, living toward the end of time with a concern for mission in this world, letting go of both material possessions and fear of what others might think about us or do to us, placing loyalty to the God revealed in Christ above all other loyalties, even the deepest ones of home and family, a life of non-resistance to violence, trust in God and trust in God’s future.

The call to this life of mission is not directed to the twelve only. For Mathew, all disciples are apostles; all participate in the apostolic mission. They have no need to fear for three reasons: First, the eschatological judgment soon to come will make everything public, so attempting to keep one’s faith private is ultimately futile. What is heard at night refers to the nighttime meetings of the Matthean community, where Jesus’ sayings were passed on. The Christian message is to be proclaimed and lived out by the disciples, not kept to themselves as private religion.

Second, the coming judgment of God that can destroy the soul is more to be feared than the judgment of human courts that can only harm the body. Thus, awe and fear of God and the ultimate judgment overcomes fear of what human courts can do and sets the disciples free to be courageous witnesses. Third, God is the faithful creator who cares for each and every creature in God’s creation.

The Eucharist we celebrate is our way of loving God back and putting him first. We are empowered to go out and find him in all others through hospitality and loving compassion.

So, be a disciple of Jesus, put God first through faith commitment and find him in others through hospitality and loving compassion.