Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today’s scripture readings begin with a delightful and heart-warming story. An influential Shunammite woman provides extraordinary welcome and hospitality to the prophet Elisha. At first, she invited him home for dinner. But as time goes by, she offers him a small room and furnishes it with a bed, a table, a chair and a lamp. No reward was expected. She only did this because Elisha was a man of God. However, she is not left without a reward. She and her husband had been childless, and Elisha promises them a child. The promise was fulfilled. In many ways, this story foreshadows Jesus’ words in today’s gospel, “Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward” (Mt 10:41). Jesus goes further. Even a cup of cold water does not go unrewarded! (Mt 10:42).
I would like to reflect on the themes of hospitality and welcome. However, instead of my typical three points, let me reflect on these themes in three stages.
- Whoever Loves Father or Mother More Than Me. There are two sections in today’s Gospel reading from Matthew. The first section addresses the disciples in relation to Jesus, and the second section addresses the disciple on mission. Of course, both these sections are important because Christ and His mission must consume the disciples. Let us reflect on the first section. Sayings such as, “If you love father, mother, son or daughter more than me,” if not understood in their context, can be misunderstood. The context is persecution. Members within the same family were confronted with the choice of having to make heart-breaking decisions about faith at a time when persecution could claim their life. Those who chose faith in Christ over their families risked the cross and death.These are the people who loved Jesus more than mother and father, son and daughter. Whoever receives them, Jesus says, receives Him. Even a cup of water offered to beleaguered and persecuted disciples would not go unrewarded. The welcome and hospitality offered by the Shunammite woman to Elisha foreshadows the kind of hospitality and welcomes that Jesus hoped that his disciples would be offered. And of course, Jesus makes this promise to those who offer hospitality and welcome: “He/she will surely not lose his/her reward” (Mt 10:42). This is stage one.
- God With Us. Taking into account the fact that we are reading from the Gospel of Matthew, we realize that the themes of welcome and hospitality dominate the entire gospel. These themes are in the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the gospel of Matthew. Right at the beginning, Jesus is announced as, “Emmanuel,” “God with us” (Mt 1:23). Matthew gives us very vivid images of how Jesus was welcomed into the very world he came to save. In the same chapter, Matthew narrates the story of the magi who welcomed Jesus with gifts and homage and Herod, who caused him to flee. Later in his ministry, Matthew describes how Jesus encountered hostility in his own hometown, which led him to declare, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and in his own house” (Mt 13:57). In the second section of today’s gospel, Jesus suggests that those who welcome his messengers/disciples, in fact welcome Him. This theme of welcome and hospitality reaches its climax towards the end, in the parable of the Great Judgment (25:31-46) where, repeatedly we hear Jesus say, “As often as you did or did not do it to the least of my brothers and sisters, you did it or did not do to me” (Mt 25:31-45). The hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the stranger, the ill, those in prison is Jesus in disguise. And because Jesus is in them, they are our brothers and sisters. Christ’s identification with the disciples, the “little ones,” and the least is the all-important stage two. Matthew’s point is that the reward that awaits those who show welcome and hospitality to the least is nothing short the kingdom prepared for them - eternal life itself. The contrary is also a possiblity. Those who do not show hospitality and welcome to the least will not inherit eternal life.
- Welcome and Hospitality in 2020. If the context of Matthew’s world was persecution and poverty, the context of our times are the events that we see played out in front of our very eyes. It is impossible today to interpret scriptures without addressing our context of the global pandemic, the global movement of people, and the racial upheaval in our nation. Let me give you the example of the country of my birth. India enforced a COVID lock-down very early in March and within hours. What it did not take into account was the fate of millions of migrant workers. They were left stranded and totally helpless. Some of them walked, many cycled, thousands huddled into open trucks for hundreds of miles to reach home. Some made it home facing unimaginable misery while thousands died on the way. What does welcome and hospitality mean in this context? In our own country, the stories of thousands of ‘strangers’ lining up at our borders after desperate, risky and life-threatening journeys in an attempt to escape from war, tyranny or economic misery is not unknown to us. Now, COVID presents yet another threat to immigrants in detention centers, where separated families and children pine for each other. In our own city, undocumented immigrants find themselves ignored and unprotected. In Christ, they are our brothers and sisters. Many of you have offered more than cold water to them. Believe me, your reward will be great in heaven. There are others who have remained unmoved and yet others who have helped heap more misery upon the helpless. The Lord has his reward for you as well. The racial turmoil in our nation can also be interpreted from the perspective of hospitality and welcome. Does the color of the skin matter so much that we can create systemic inequalities for centuries and generations and simply refuse to treat each other well? What does racial inequality say about us, our humanity, our faith, our capacity for welcome and hospitality? Again, the global pandemic presents a totally new way of understanding hospitality and welcome. More than ever, today hospitality and welcome mean caring about each other – caring enough about each other to simply wear a mask, maintain social distance, or stay home unless necessary. I believe that our world ravaged by illness, inequality, injustice and violence needs to recognize “Emmanuel,” more now than ever as “God with us”. In all the areas that I have reflected on and more, this is the time to show the Shunammite woman’s welcome and hospitality to the least and to one another. Our salvation depends on it. This is stage three.
Let me conclude with these words. Christ welcomes us here today. In every Catholic church we find a crucifix with a dying Christ, welcoming the world with open arms. As Paul says, in today’s second reading, “If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him” (Rom 6:8) Being hospitable and welcoming is a kind of dying to self. If we die to ourselves and open our arms and hearts like Christ, then, great will be our reward. If not, it will be what we have brought upon ourselves.
- Fr. Satish Joseph