Holy gospel reading according to Saint Matthew 10:37-42
«The one who loves his father or his mother more than me, is not worthy of me; he who loves his son or his daughter more than me is not worthy of me. He who does not take his cross and follow me behind him is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life, he will lose it; and whoever loses his life for me, he will find it. “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the One who sent me. “Whoever receives a prophet for being a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever receives a righteous person for being righteous will receive a righteous reward. “And whoever gives one of these little ones just a cup of cool water to drink, because he is his disciple, I assure you that he will not lose his reward.” Lord’s word.
The story of those two friends who were going through the forest when, suddenly, a bear came out in their path helps us a lot. One of them, scared, climbed a tree. The other did not have time and remained on the ground, motionless, playing dead. The bear, seeing him, slowly approached him, and began to smell and observe him, but since he didn’t move, the bear thought he was dead and left him alone. The bear left, and the one in the tree ran down, flaunting his friendship, hugging his friend. While he hugged him he asked him: -it seemed that the bear was saying something to you while it smelled you. Tell me what did he tell you? The other answered: -This is what he told me: Separate your friendship from the person who, if he sees you in danger, saves himself and leaves you abandoned.
The story gives us elements to try to understand that, hard, and even impossible, the demands of Jesus; It is too much what Jesus asks of his own, but that is the friendship, closeness and love that is professed for others. Although unfortunately we are no longer so impressed by what has been said; since we have heard it so many times that we take it for granted; and knowing the words almost by heart, we imagine, dispenses us from having to practice them…
And then we lament that, apparently, Jesus counts little on us and we believe that he has abandoned us somewhat! we take for granted that it is not for us what he wanted to demand from the most intimate of him; and we continue to complain that he is not more intimate with us; We cannot feel that we are his envoys to the world, with his mission and in his place, because we believe that the demands that he imposed on whom he one day sent into the world are not addressed to us; avoiding following him more closely, we will never be able to feel close to him. Those who, today like yesterday, want Jesus to consider them as his apostles, the friends who share his life and mission, have to accept being what Jesus wants them to be.
And the first thing that Jesus demands of his disciples is an authentic, preferential love; Those who follow him and are going to represent him, those who live with him and will be sent in his place, must love him more, much more, than all those who love them.. It’s easy to say – but will it be possible to practice it? -; the disciple must love Christ more than his parents, and – in case this were easy – more than his own children. It is not that Jesus denies his own the duty to honor their father/mother, which is a divine precept; nor does Jesus oppose his disciples exercising parental authority and loving his children, a natural right and duty; He does not demand that one not love one’s own family, but he does impose that one not love it as much as he does.
Wouldn’t we become more interested in each other if we were really interested in accepting the demands of Jesus? Is it not our fear of suffering and risk that holds us back from surrender? And if around us today there is a lack of disciples who prefer the Lord, at any cost, why not decide today to be one more of them? We owe the world, and first of all our loved ones, the testimony that we love them so much that we only God precedes them in our love: only in this way do we authenticate ourselves before the world and in our family, as disciples of Christ.
Good Sunday. To enjoy the presence of God at Mass and in the family!
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