13th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A
Discipleship (Mt 10: 37-42)
We continue to listen to the “Missionary Instructions” of Jesus (Mt 10) addressed to his apostles as he sends them out on their mission to the Jewish villages. These instructions also capture elements of discipleship that feature more explicitly in the Gospels of Mark and Luke. There are two important themes, that are related to each other, that emerge in the gospel of text of today. The first part is an invitation to surrender, and the second part is a promise of reward. Let us reflect on these two themes.
An Invitation to Surrender
Discipleship is marked by a sense of clinging to something beyond ourselves. To be able to cling to the master, the disciple has to go through a process of self-emptying. That is the invitation of Jesus extended to us in the gospel of today.
Jesus calls us to three levels of surrender:
(1) To surrender our preferential affection for our kith and kin: The Gospel of Matthew is a little more polite and less demanding than Luke in this context. While Matthew has it as, “Anyone who prefers father or mother to me is not worthy of me” (Mt 10:37), Luke would be more blatant, “If any one comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” (Lk 14:26).
Luke puts in one sentence what Matthew says in many. The underpinning theme here is, we need to have our priorities of relationship sorted. God/Jesus has to be Number One. This is the meaning of being a disciple.
(2) To surrender our need for a comfort and easy life. “Anyone who does not take up his cross and follow in my footsteps is not worthy of me” (Mt 10:38). This does not mean that we go around looking for trouble! Mufasar tells his son Simba, in the animation movie, Lion King, “Being brave doesn’t mean you go looking for trouble.” Carrying our cross as a disciple does not mean we go looking for trouble. Nor does it mean, we test other people’s strengths in the church by laying crosses on them. It simply means that we shouldn’t take the easier path and compromise in our commitment to following Jesus.
Commitment might entail a certain level of sacrifice. A married person will have to say good-bye to their previous lovers; a mother has to wake up in the middle of the night for the sake of her child; a health-care worker might have to go the extra mile; a politician has to resist their temptation for easy money and power; a priest might have to exercise a greater self-control and personal discipline… the list goes on. The truth is every choice of commitment entails a choice to take on a certain level of “suffering.” The choice to follow Christ entails a type of cross!
(3) To surrender our need for self-preservation. “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Mt 10:39). This is related to the above two types of surrenders. But the third surrender hurts us at our very core. Our own life! We need to be ready to lose our biological and historical life, so that we can gain eternal life – life in God. This can be demanding. But there is a promise!
A Promise of Reward
The promise is a reward. The reward is that you will be welcomed by the believing community. Whoever welcomes you also enjoys their reward.
Just as in the first reading of this Sunday, the generosity of the Shunem couple towards Elisha gets rewarded on account of the blessing of God mediated through the prophet, there is a reward for the generous of heart. While Elisha feels obliged to give back something to this couple for their generosity, the couple themselves offer hospitality to him out of sheer generosity.
At the heart of the two themes is a third theme, namely, Delayed Gratification. I control myself now so that I can achieve a sense of meaning and purpose in my life. In these, I am not being “penny wise and pound foolish” – I am able to forgo small enjoyments of life now so that I am able to enjoy a greater gratification later.
There is a famous experiment that was carried out in 1972 at the Standford University. Children aged between 3 and 5 were given a piece of marshmallow (a type of sweet) and told that they had two options: one, to eat it at once; or if they waited 15 minutes without eating then they would be given one more piece of marshmallow. What is more interesting is the revelation that in the follow up studies after 10 years upto 15 years. It emerged that those who did not eat the marshmallow when they were little kids were more likely to have succeeded better in their lives with their entry into university, or lower chances of substance abuse. This is the power of delayed gratification.
This is at the heart of the orientation offered by Jesus in the gospel text of today. In a spiritual realm when we are able to renounce ourselves for the Kingdom of God, the subsequent outcome could be more gratifying. St John of the Cross reflects on his own life of renunciation. He comes out with a poetic expression of universality which is the effect of renunciation:
“Mine are the heavens and mine is the earth. Mine are the nations, the just are mine, and mine the sinners. The angels are mine, and the Mother of God, and all things are mine; and God himself is mine and for me, because Christ is mine and all for me. What do you ask, then, and seek, my soul? Yours is all of this, and all is for you. Do not engage yourself in anything less or pay heed to the crumbs that fall from your Father’s table. Go forth and exult in your Glory! Hide yourself in it and rejoice, and you will obtain the supplications of your heart.”
May we too reach a stage of surrender to God that we may be able to proclaim with the psalmist: “I will sing forever of your love, O Lord!”