This Sunday’s Gospel presents us with the end of Jesus’ missionary discourse that we have heard over the past two weeks. It is thus the conclusion and, as such, culmination of all that Jesus wanted to convey to His first disciples-apostles when He sent them out on mission. Therefore, this concluding Gospel message will also be crucial for all His disciples-missionaries of all times, who are called to follow the divine Master in the mission of spreading the Gospel of God to the whole world.
It is very significant that at the end of the missionary instructions Jesus clearly laid out the very arduous conditions for being “worthy” disciples of Him, that is, His true disciples. Those who follow Him (or want to follow) in the mission for God will be called to love Him more than all others, including parents and children, as well as more than everything, including their own lives. Particularly, the first part of the statement, which insists on love for Jesus more than for father or mother, may shock many, especially those in the Jewish culture or Asian culture in general, with the special emphasis on filial piety. Moreover, it should be noted that the parallel text to this passage in Luke’s Gospel has an even stronger, more clamorous form: “If any one comes to me without hating his father and mother,… he cannot be my disciple” (Lk 14:26). This is certainly an original saying of Jesus, for it is so outrageous with the mention of “hating (father and mother)” that the parallel version of Mt 10:37 wanted to use an equivalent but less disconcerting formulation “Whoever loves (father or mother) more than me is not worthy of me.” Here as in other instances, for example in the recommendation to follow Jesus without wasting time burying one’s father (cf. Mt 8:21-22), a image emerges of a Jesus who, in addition to being similar to a sage in the wording of the sayings, presents Himself as a teacher who is conscious of His own identity and mission and, consequently, sets demanding and uncompromising conditions on those who want to follow Him, little known in the biblical-Jewish and even rabbinic tradition.
To understand Jesus’ intention correctly, however, two considerations are needed. First, as well explained by one exegete, the recommended attitude of “hating” or “loving less” parents for Jesus “does not pose a problem of feelings or state of mind, but of practical and existential choice, where fidelity to Christ and the Gospel collides with family relationships. The status of the disciples, free even in regard to parental ties, is comparable to that of the “Levites” in the Old Testament (cf. Deut 33:8-11)» (R. Fabris, Matteo, Rome 1996, 256 note 3). Effectively, and this is the second point to consider, Levites “consecrated” to the service of God are called to put God above everyone and everything. In addition, God generally demands from the members of His people of Israel an exclusive, absolute love, “with your whole heart, and with your whole being, and with your whole strength,” as the only response worthy of His preventive saving love (cf. Deut 6:4-5Now, Jesus demands something similar from His followers, from His people, from true Israel. Thus, on the one hand, Jesus shows Himself as God, in persona Dei, speaking in love and demanding love; on the other hand, one might glimpse that the disciples’ insistence on absolute love for Jesus actually reflects the case of a man and woman called to abandon their parents to create in love their own new family, as it is also written in Scripture: “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body” (Gen 2:24). After all, Jesus made such a departure from the family bond in the love of God the Father in order to devote Himself exclusively to the divine mission (cf. Lk 2:48-49), without even recusing Himself from the arduous path of the cross. Such love, zeal and dedication is now required of His disciples-missionaries, beginning with radical detachment from everyone and everything, to continue in love the same path of Christ’s mission for God. Should we not feel called upon now by these strong words of Jesus, our Master and Lord?
After the disciples’ forthright recommendation of absolute love, Jesus wants to reiterate the greatness of their calling among the people to whom they are sent: “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.” This is not simply a statement about the truth of hospitality. The phrase actually echoes the well-known principle of the Judeo-Rabinic institution of shaliah “sent,” according to which “He who is sent is like him who invites him.” Jesus’ mentioned saying reflects the God-Christ-disciple mission chain, what the resurrected Jesus will declare to his own in his first “official” appearance in the Upper Room according to the Gospel of John: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (Jn 20:21). In this way, by analogy of Jesus’ statement, “Whoever sees me, sees the Father,” one could continue, with all the limitations of the case, in pointing to the disciples’ being: Whoever sees you, sees me! Here is the lofty calling of disciples-missionaries and their highest honor of presenting Christ and God in mission. Therefore, we must become more and more what we are: the living Christ, God’s witness. In this regard, it is worth rereading Pope Francis’ authoritative reflections to renew our zeal as Christ’s disciples-missionaries again:
Christ was the first to be sent, as a “missionary” of the Father (cf. Jn 20:21), and as such, he is the Father’s “faithful witness” (cf. Rev 1:5). In a similar way, every Christian is called to be a missionary and witness to Christ. (…)
Christ, indeed Christ risen from the dead, is the One to whom we must testify and whose life we must share. Missionaries of Christ are not sent to communicate themselves, to exhibit their persuasive qualities and abilities or their managerial skills. Instead, theirs is the supreme honour of presenting Christ in words and deeds, proclaiming to everyone the Good News of his salvation, as the first apostles did, with joy and boldness. (Message of His Holiness Pope Francis for World Mission (Sun)Day 2022 “You shall be my witnesses” [Acts 1:8])
(…) The risen Christ, then, is both the one who breaks the bread and, at the same time, the bread itself, broken for us. It follows that every missionary disciple is called to become, like Jesus and in him, through the working of the Holy Spirit, one who breaks the bread and one who is broken bread for the world. (Message of His Holiness Pope Francis for World Mission (Sun)Day 2023 “Hearts on fire, feet on the move” [cf. Lk 24:13-35])
It is very interesting to read that, after the basic statement of the principle of representation in mission, Jesus concludes the whole discourse with the promise of the certain reward for those who practice hospitality to needy disciples who, as implied in the context, are sent by Christ for mission in the world: “And whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because the little one is a disciple— amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.” Apparently, this is not the generic recommendation of hospitality; rather, one could glimpse here an exhortation for material support to Christ’s missionaries. Astonishing, in fact, is the concrete image of “a cup of cold water,” a sign of a small but significant help, for it is highly desirable for those who have to walk often under the scorching sun in that Land of Palestine. In this way, we glimpse in these promises of Christ the care and concern of Christ for His disciples-missionaries. He does not forget even the smallest help given to His sent in the mission, because they are His “representatives,” and therefore what one offers to them is actually as if one gives to Him. On the other hand, the reality emerges of a possible “collaboration” with the disciples on the part of all humans, who are thus called to contribute, sometimes even unconsciously, to the divine mission!
The Gospel thought analyzed leads us spontaneously to the theme of so-called “missionary cooperation,” which will be even more desired among all Christ’s faithful for the common mission, especially today. Pope Francis wanted to insist on this in his Message for 2023 World Mission (Sun)Day with the theme “Hearts on fire, feet on the move”:
The image of “feet setting out” reminds us once more of the perennial validity of the missio ad gentes, the mission entrusted to the Church by the risen Lord to evangelize all individuals and peoples, even to the ends of the earth. (…) All of us can contribute to this missionary movement: with our prayers and activities, with material offerings and the offering of our sufferings, and with our personal witness. (…)The urgency of the Church’s missionary activity naturally calls for an ever closer missionary cooperation on the part of all her members and at every level. (emphasis added).
Let us pray then (in the words of the alternative Collect prayer in the Italian Missal for Sunday XIII, Year A):
Infuse in us, O Father, the wisdom and strength of your Spirit, so we may walk with Christ on the way of the cross, ready to make a gift of our lives to manifest to the world the hope of your kingdom. Through Christ, our Lord. Amen.
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