Sunday Gospel Reflection, July 2, 2023: Whoever receives me receives the one who sent me...

Whoever receives me receives the one who sent me…

Are you ready to welcome the Word of God into your home? 

    Hospitality was a fundamental value in ancient times. In the Second Book of Kings, when the prophet Elisha (successor to Elijah) arrives in Shunem, a woman of influence offers him food and shelter because he is a holy man, honoring Elisha because he is a vehicle of God’s word. The unnamed woman makes a place in her home where God’s word, in the guise of the prophet, can stay. And when God’s word is allowed to live and dwell in our midst, when we are hospitable to that word, then there is peace and prosperity. Moreover, God’s fidelity to God’s people is unwavering, as Psalm 89 reminds us: through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness. It is no surprise, then, that God is welcome in their midst, or that the psalmist will sing the goodness of the Lord, forever. 

    Jesus will adapt the ancient laws of hospitality to his own teaching. In Matthew's Gospel, he sends his disciples out into the world to proclaim the good news, he assures them, saying, Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. When we make room for the Word of God in our lives, when we invite God’s love in, when we heed Christ’s call to inclusivity, we love God, and in so doing, we draw others into our love for God. When Jesus speaks of those who love father or mother more than me, he is reminding the disciples that the greater their love for God, the more room there is for everyone else. Our love for God makes room for our love for everyone. 

   Love is not a finite parcel we dole out, but rather an infinite channeling of the inexhaustible source of love flowing through us, one we must allow to keep expanding so that it can be ever more inclusive. For, as Paul writes to the Romans, we must think of ourselves as dead to sin, dead to our own self-focus, our own self-centeredness, our own egotism, living for God in Christ Jesus. We know connection in our own faith community and beyond only if we let the the Word of God direct us by receiving him into our lives, into our homes, daily, that we might share that love with our world. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, November 20, 2022: If you are King of the Jews...

If you are King of the Jews…

What does it mean to be king? 

    In the Second Book of Samuel, David is made king of Israel when the elders of Israel come to him with the request that he unite the people once again. David is one they recognize as having led them into battle; they recognize in him the qualities necessary to a successful king. They are his bone and his flesh, his strength and his vulnerability. It is thanks to David’s conquest of the Jebusites that, in Psalm 122, the people can go rejoicing to the house of the Lord. Jerusalem thus becomes his city and represents the united people of Israel; the temple there is their spiritual heart. David is a temporal king of a specific geographical region; his house will give rise to the King of all Kings, Jesus Christ. '

    And yet… when Jesus is on the cross, the soldiers jeer at him, calling out, If you are King of the Jews, save yourself. In Luke’s Gospel, the cross is Jesus’ moment of coronation, not because he is crowned with a crown of thorns, but by his death and resurrection. The kingdom is present wherever Christ rules, even in our world, but the kingdom in its fullness is beyond this world. The jeering that surrounds Jesus is part of the earthly kingdom, where the human desire is to control, to dominate. But the kingdom of God is not about military power but about loving humility; Jesus is crowned King because of the power of his love, and that kingdom is revealed every time we open our hearts in love to another person. Thanks to Jesus’ death and resurrection, Paul tells the Colossians, we are delivered from the power of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of God’s beloved Son. Our focal point should be Christ, who delivers us from darkness into a kingdom of light. Jesus, the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, is and must be the King that rules our hearts, that we might join him in death; he is our hope. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class. 

Image source: www.wordclouds.com