HOMILY SUNDAY 13 – A
Strong Faith and Generous Hospitality
(2 Kings 4:8-12a, 14-17; Psalm 89; Romans 6:3-4, 6-11; Mt 10:37-42)
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The announcement that parents are expecting a set of twins is usually met with both surprise and excitement.
Today’s readings offer us a set of twin inter-connected themes on which to focus our attention: strong faith and generous hospitality.
Regarding generous hospitality, in his farewell comments at the end of his September 2015 journey to the United States, Pope Francis told the people gathered at the Philadelphia International Airport, “Your care for me and your generous welcome are a sign of your love for Jesus and your faithfulness to him.”
This sounds something Elisha the prophet would have said to the woman we meet in today’s first reading, in response to her hospitality to him even in her barrenness. Grateful for their hospitality freely given without any expectation of anything in return, Elisha prayed for them and God gave them a child.
Their hospitality is remarkably like that of Abraham and Sarah who in their barrenness offered three visitors generous hospitality and in return were promised a child. Both these couples, model for us the biblical virtue of hospitality.
Does this mean that we should try to be generous so that God will reward us? Not exactly – The Word Among Us commentary on this Sunday suggests that our generosity is to be a response, a reflection of the good that God has done for us. We give generously so that we can show the world what God’s generosity looks like. We go out of our way for people because we want to bring God’s own love to them. This is why Pope Francis keeps urging us to give, to reach out, and to show God’s love to the world.
We are invited to come up with ways that we can give more to the poor, serve more in our parish or community, and be a more loving witness to the people around us. Know that the Lord rejoices in whatever we do to him, by doing it to others.
Regarding strong faith, we are reminded that God works best in our poverty and powerlessness, our own barrenness. Step One of the Twelve Step program captures this faith reality well: “Admitted that I was powerless over alcohol (or something in my life) and that my life was unmanageable.” That is humble faith and the key to healing.
Today’s psalm expresses another aspect of strong faith and that is the desire to praise God, to sing of God’s steadfast love and proclaim God’s faithfulness to all generations. The charismatic renewal has helped us to pray in that way more openly and freely.
A third aspect of strong faith is putting love for Jesus first in our lives, as a priority at the centre of our lives, before all else. There is nothing else more important than that – not even family or friends or career. These all come second, after our personal faith commitment to following Jesus. The martyrs, like the First Martyrs of the Church that we honoured on June 30th, exemplify this stance in the most powerful way possible, with the very gift of their lives. While we may never be physically martyred, we are called to live Calvary in slow motion, dying to ourselves each day to put God first and serve others.
Finally, with the admonition to take up our cross and follow Jesus, we see that another way to express strong faith in God’s love for us, and that is the willingness to accept some inconvenience and suffering in our lives without resentment or bitterness, as Jesus did. That is the key to the kingdom – suffering accepted without complaint that becomes full of meaning and purpose because it is connected to the suffering of Jesus that mysteriously builds up the reign of God here on earth.
+ Fr. Brian Jayawardhana OMI
Fr. Brian Jayawardhana OMI was one such person. Dying of cancer, at one point he could not move his body at all because both his arms were so frail any movement would break them. Yet to visit him was to be moved and inspired, as he always had a welcoming smile on his faith, and a grateful spirit for all of God’s goodness to him. Truly, he had a strong faith and was exercising generous hospitality, even in this palliative stage of his life. What a blessing he was to all who knew him, by giving both his life and his death away as a blessing to us.
The Eucharist makes present to us the love and generosity of Jesus on the cross who modelled how to give both our lives and deaths away.
May our celebration today strengthen our faith in God’s power to work in the barrenness of our lives, and fill us with a spirit of generous hospitality that will reflect God’s goodness to the world.
