“SMALL” THE ONLY HONORIFIC TITLE RECOGNIZED IN HEAVEN
Fr. Jijo Kandamkulathy CMF Claretian Missionaries
Gospel: Mattew 11:25-30
The solemn exclamation with which today’s gospel begins is one of the few prayers of Jesus reported in the gospels: “Father, Lord of heaven and earth… revealed them to simple people”. Jesus states a fact: the poor, the humble, the marginalized people are the first to welcome his word of deliverance. They feel the need of God’s tenderness. They hunger and thirst for righteousness. They are blessed because for them the kingdom of God has come.
In the second part of the passage Jesus says: “No one knows the Son except the Father… and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Knowing in the Bible means “to have a profound experience of the person.” A full knowledge of the Father is possible only to the Son. However, he may communicate this experience to anyone he wants. Who will have the right disposition to accept his revelation? The small ones, of course! As long as the Scribes and Pharisees do not give up their attitude of being “wise” and “intelligent” people, they preclude the true and rewarding experience of God’s love.
The religion preached by these masters of Israel had transformed itself into an oppressive yoke. So, the poor not only felt themselves wretched in this world, but also rejected by God and excluded from the world to come. To these poor, lost and disoriented, Jesus addressed the invitation to be free from fear and distressing religion instilled in them. He recommends: Accept my law, the new one that is summed up in a single commandment: love of the brothers/sisters. He does not propose an easier and permissive moral, but an ethic that points directly to the essential. It does not waste energies in the observance of prescriptions “that has the appearance of wisdom” but in reality, they have no value (Col 2:23).
His yoke is sweet. First of all because it is his: not in the sense that he imposed it, but because he carried it first. Jesus always bent down to the Father’s will. He freely embraced it while he never imposed human precepts (Mk 7). His yoke is sweet because only those who accept the wisdom of the beatitudes can experience the joy and peace.
Finally, the invitation: “Learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart.” These are the terms that we find in the Beatitudes for those who are poor and oppressed, those who, while suffering injustice, do not resort to violence. To all these poor people of the land Jesus says: I’m on your side, I am one of you, I am poor and rejected.
The passage of today’s Gospel is a reason for both personal and community reflection. Which God do we believe in? Is he the one of the “wise”? Or the one revealed to us by Jesus who stands by the poor.
Whoever has a big heart is not content with a small house
Fr. Jijo Kandamkulathy CMF Claretian Missionaries
Gospel: Mt 10:37-42
Matthew wrote his Gospel in a time of persecution. The disciples have often had the experience that to remain faithful to Christ they had to accept the breaking of ties with the people who mattered most. The rabbis had made the decision to expel the Christians from the synagogues. They had ordered that those who adhered to the Christian faith be considered heretical and disowned by their families. The consequences of this exclusion were severe and painful not only from the emotional point of view but also social and economic.
Jesus demands from the disciple the courage to remain without support, without protection, and without material security for the sake of his Gospel. Then, he continues with another request, even more dramatic: the willingness not only to lose it all but also to give up their lives. The image of the cross refers to the inevitable consequence which goes to meet those who want to live according to the demands of the Gospel: like the Master, they will meet the cross, that is, the hostility of the world. Even if they will not lose life with martyrdom, they must give it in a constant and generous self-sacrifice.
The second part of the passage gives a remarkable promise to those who welcome the preachers of the Gospel: “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes him who sent me.” This is not just material hospitality, such as that offered by the woman of Shunem to Elisha but the reception of the message. The rabbis said: “The envoy of a man is like the man himself.” In the disciple’s words resounds the voice of the Master, and through him the Father’s.
It is at this point that the theme introduced by the first reading is resumed. Whoever receives the prophet for the fact of being a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward. Even a simple gesture of love as to offer a cup of cold water to a disciple, though small, with no appearance, no prestigious titles, will not remain unrewarded.
Not everyone has received from God the same qualities and the same gifts. However, in different ways but with the same generosity, every true believer is called to give their contribution and support for those who dedicate themselves directly to the proclamation of the word of God. Even before the material help, these persons need to hear that their efforts are appreciated by the brothers and sisters in the faith and that their message is assimilated.
This reception is to be revealed in a special way to those who have renounced to having a “home,” to build a family, not to escape or to live isolated and far from the world but to belong to every family, to be fully available to Christ and the brothers and sisters. Does each family consider them members or strangers? How is gratitude manifested towards the work they generously perform?
You are chosen for a responsibility – not a privilege Gospel: Matthew 9:36–10:8
Fr. Jijo Kandamkulathy CMF Claretian Missionaries
Priests and nuns are in constant and dramatic decline: What to do? The answer is almost obvious: “Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” However, restricting ourselves to these categories of Christians the application of the proposed Gospel passage is not right and even dangerous. It leads us to think that they will only have to commit to community service and assume that God’s people is a flock without a shepherd, being a “harvest” that is not collected and is lost for lack of “reapers”.
The twelve disciples—let’s say it now—do not represent the priests and nuns, but the whole people of God. Whatever one’s condition of life be (married or single, learned or ignorant, strong or weak …) everyone has to engage oneself in the construction of God’s kingdom.
The context of choosing the 12 apostles is the compassion of Jesus for his people because he does not see anyone taking care of them: not political leaders, nor the religious authorities. All are driven by the pursuit of their own interests, their own advantages and prospects for advancement. They aim at privileges; they want to improve their own lives and neglect the people who are hungry, sick, living oppressed and victim of abuses.
Jesus is sensitive to the needs and the human pain. The verb ‘splagknizomai’ for compassion occurs only twelve times in the Gospels. It is always used to express the profound emotion of God or of Christ towards people. Here it is applied to the feelings that Jesus experiences: he does not remain aloof, does not watch with detachment and disinterest the condition in which his people struggle, but he is moved. He feels a visceral emotion.
This compassion leads him to intervene. He initiates a new people, called the twelve, and this number refers to the twelve tribes of Israel.
Jesus enjoins these disciples to continue his work. For this, he wants, first of all, that they pray, because only in prayer they can assimilate the sentiments of God. Then he gives them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal the sick.
In the last verses, the mission to which the disciples are called is again invoked: “Go and proclaim the message: The kingdom of heaven is near. Heal the sick, bring the dead back to life, cleanse the lepers, and drive out demons” (vv. 7-8). It is—as it is easy to check—of what Jesus himself did (Mt 9:35; 4:17). Christians are thus called to devote all their energies to “reproduce” to make their Master present in the world. He is the first worker sent into the harvest, the disciples are his collaborators, as Paul well understood (1 Cor 3:9).
The passage concludes with the injunction, “You received this as a gift, so give it as a gift” (v. 8), is the demand of complete detachment from any form of self-interest in the performance of apostolic action. The disciple of Christ does not work to get some personal benefit: to be known, esteemed, revered, to enrich himself. He offers free his readiness, as did the Master. His only reward will be the joy of having served and loved the brothers with the generosity of which he has seen Jesus operate.
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