Monday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time C-2

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Ps 17 (16):15 As for me, in justice I shall behold your face; I shall be filled with the vision of your glory.

Collect O God, who show the light of your truth to those who go astray, so that they may return to the right path, give all who for the faith they profess are accounted Christians the grace to reject whatever is contrary to the name of Christ and to strive after all that does it honour. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Scripture today: Isaiah 1:10-17; Psalm 49; Matthew 10:34-11:1

Jesus said, Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.' Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward. After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee. (Matthew 10:34-11:1)

Christ Above All Let us take any one of our Lord’s predecessors in the prophetic tradition of the chosen people. Let us ask if that prophet, holy man or inspired leader would expect what our Lord expects of his disciples in our Gospel passage today. Our Lord states that “anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” Our Lord plainly affirms that he is worthier far than any other person in our lives, more so than anyone we would naturally love, anyone who has the greatest natural claims on us. No-one in all the Scriptures made such claims. Consider Abraham or any of the patriarchs. The woman whom our Lord met at the Well of Sichar referred to “our father Jacob” (John 4:12) and asked if he, Jesus, were greater than he. Consider Moses, David, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah and the other great prophets. They had their disciples — Isaiah directs that the record of his words of prophecy be folded and his sealed instruction be kept among his disciples (8:16). But none of them would have demanded the devotion to his person that Jesus Christ requires. Our Lord expects full acceptance of his teaching and total acceptance of his person, and this because he is worthy of it. Anyone who does not give this, is not worthy of him. He does not come simply bearing the fullest revelation of God’s plan. His divine Message is not the only blessing he brings. He brings himself, and in his very Person we are granted every heavenly blessing, as St Paul puts it. He, then, is the greatest treasure of man, and to possess him is to possess more than any other possible treasure in life, no matter how dear. It is plain that our Lord is speaking with full consciousness of being divine. “For I say to you that many prophets and kings have desired to see the things which you see, and did not see them; and to hear the things which you hear, and did not hear them” (Luke 10:24).

Our Lord promises that if we “lose” our life for his sake, we shall find it. “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” The Kingdom, then, is Jesus Christ and union with him, and we must be prepared to forego all in order to possess him. Our Lord told the parable of this kingdom. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found, and hid. In his joy, he goes and sells all that he has, and buys the field. Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a merchant seeking fine pearls, who having found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it" (Matthew 13:44-46). But this absolute devotion to Jesus Christ does not separate us from others, least of all those who are most dear or for whom we have serious responsibilities. Our love for Jesus Christ, in his own divine plan, is to be immediately translated into loving service of neighbour. “Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward” (Matthew 10:34-11:1). Our Lord attacked the scribes and Pharisees for rendering void the commandment of God to honour and assist one’s parents by their rule of Corban. Moses said, ‘Honour your father and your mother; and, He that speaks evil of father or mother, let him die’: but you say, ‘If a man shall say to his father or his mother, That by which I may have helped you is Corban,’ that is, Given to God; you no longer allow him to do anything for his father or his mother; making void the word of God by your tradition, which you have delivered: and many such like things you do” (Mark 7:1-13). The final Judgment will be determined by our service of those in need — and our Lord will say that what was done to them was done to him because each of them is his brother or sister (Matthew 25).

So then, the Christian must clearly understand in what the Christian religion consists. It consists in loving Jesus Christ with all one’s mind, heart, soul and strength because he is both man and God. Secondly, it consists in loving our neighbour not only as much as we love ourselves, but as Christ has loved us. This is the magnificent and the difficult vocation of the Christian, impossible for man but not for God. That is why God sent his Son to take away the sin of the world and to endow us with a share in his divine life by the gift of the Holy Spirit. Every day is an adventure, the adventure of love. Let us strive for the perfection of love, then!

(E.J.Tyler)

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A Second Reflection: (Isaiah 1:10-17)

Morality and Religion If we consider the characters in the popular fiction of the last century — for instance, some comic strip characters such as Tarzan, Superman etc — we notice that these characters are moral but not religious. God does not feature in their lives but morality does (and I am not thinking of the very recent past, such as in the James Bond character, who in debonair fashion is not even moral!). We know from Revelation that morality without religion is not pleasing to God. The first three commandments require religion, which is to say, love and devotion to God himself. But there is an opposite error. There is the danger of being so-called “religious” but not moral. That is to say, there is the real possibility of being concerned for one’s relationship with God, with prayer and elements of worship, and being unconcerned with serious deficiencies in one’s moral life, for example in right behaviour towards others. And non-religious people point this out and dismiss religion because of it.

The prophet Isaiah condemns this (1:10-17). God is a God of justice and morality — not like the gods of the pagans that required little more than religious observances. The living of our religion involves, while being more than, a life of high and faithful morality.

(E.J.Tyler)

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