XIII Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A
Mt 10:37-42
The Gospel passage for this 13th Sunday (Mt 10:37-42) concludes the "missionary discourse".
Let's start by recalling how this discourse opened: the sending of the disciples on a mission was born of a feeling that arose in Jesus' heart at the sight of the crowds, and which we saw on previous Sundays: compassion. A feeling that speaks of a bond, a relationship. It's Jesus' connection with the world, his way of being in a relationship.
That was the beginning of the missionary discourse; today, we see how the discourse ends, where Jesus wants to take us, what is the goal of the disciples' mission.
It's about a new way of living, a new way of relating, a way that is "worthy" of God.
This expression, "he is not worthy of me", appears three times in today's passage (Mt 10:37, 38).
What does it mean to be - or not to be - worthy of Him? It means being called to have one's own dignity.
The dignity of sons, first of all: we are called sons of God, and this is our truth, our greatness, our only pride.
But that's not all. We are called to have the same dignity as Jesus, by the one who lost his own dignity, who lost everything, who gave himself up to a shameful death, who didn't keep his dignity to himself, who shared it, who gave it away; who lost everything to make us worthy of him, worthy of the Father, heirs of Life; by the one who had compassion.
This is the meaning of Jesus' words today, when he says that anyone who loves father, mother, children... more than himself is not worthy of him (Mt 10:37). He doesn't ask us to love less, or to love our family or our life a little: he couldn't ask that of the ones to whom he gives this only commandment: to give his life for his friends.
He is asking that our way of loving be on a par with God's, that is, that we are open to a wider world, to wider relationships. He asks that our relationships, our world, not be the only horizon of our lives, not be "everything". Even the most beautiful relationships, in the family as in social life, if they become absolute, they prevent us from opening up to the life of the world to our relationship with God, and so gradually extinguish us. Ultimately, Jesus asks us not to stop at what we have and what we are. Only such love is worthy of Him, the kind that makes room for infinite love.
To achieve this, one thing is essential: knowing how to lose, knowing how to let go, not closing ourselves off to the newness of life, to the newness of others. Only in this way can we open ourselves up to the welcome of a world greater than ourselves, and open ourselves up to the reward of which Jesus speaks.
Reward is another important word in these verses: Matthew also uses this term in his first discourse, the Sermon on the Mount (6, 2.5.41.42), when he says that anyone who does good works just to be seen, will have no reward from the Father in heaven, because he will have been content with the reward of men.
On the contrary, the Father wants to reward - that is, to give life in abundance - to those who open their hearts, to those who step outside purely human logic.
The missionary discourse began with Jesus' compassion and now ends with the anonymous compassion of a stranger who gave the disciples a glass of cool water (Mt 10:42).
This is where missionary discourse leads: wherever anyone in the world is capable of a simple gesture of compassion, there is the Gospel. And the disciples are sent out into the world to discover and inspire the Gospel, and to do so with their simple, gentle, and humble way of life, which doesn't pretend to give but asks to be received.
Wherever the disciples are welcomed, the Kingdom is present, and the reward will be for all.
+Pierbattista
