A Cycle – 13^th Sunday in Ordinary Time 23

Mt. 10: 37- 42

For fifty years Paul Harvey (a news commentator) had a weekday radio program titled “the rest of the story.”  In it he presented key facts and elements about a well known event or story.  Then he would reveal a variety of unknown elements or deliberately withheld facts of the story which would change the perspective of the story.   He signed off saying, “now you know the rest of the story.”  When we hear gospel stories, we often need the rest of the story to help us respond or apply the scriptures to our lives.    

This is certainly true for us if we never read the scriptures and our only knowledge of the scriptures is the few verses, we hear each Sunday.  To grasp what Jesus is talking about in today’s gospel is one of those where we need more information to respond to what we are hearing.  Think about what Jesus is saying!  We are to love God more than the love we have for children and our parents.  The best way for you to grasp this gospel is by reading what Jesus said to them before He reinforces the greatest commandment which is to love God with our whole heart, mind, strength, and soul. 

Up to this point in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus has been forming them by his teaching and his actions.  Jesus has been challenging them to grasp who He is and why He came.  Why does He make this radical shift in how they are to respond to their call to discipleship?  You would have thought that after He challenged them to feed the five thousand, they might have begun to grasp the concept of discipleship.  Certainly, after He sent them out with the authority to heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons and proclaim the Kingdom of God is at hand they would have begun to understand.  But now He makes it clear, there is a cost to each of us if we embrace the call to follow Him.   

You must lose your life for my sake. If you lose it, you will find it.  If you do not take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of me.  Jesus now telling them they will not earn salvation because of what they do but by what they surrender.  This is the call, and it is a total centering of our lives on Christ.  It is personal and it is a reality that we may not be accepted by those closest to us.  This is why we need to go beyond a ‘sound bite” and listen to the entire message of Christ. We must go beyond words to discover a reality where the words of Christ will challenge each of us on a spiritual level we have yet to attain.   

Think for a minute about the words of Christ when He said, “he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood, has eternal life” (Jn.6:54).  Many who heard that said “this teaching is hard to take” (Jn.6:60) and they left Him. Jesus obviously meant exactly what those words sounded like because He doubles down by saying, “my flesh is real food and my blood real drink.”  What Christ is offering us goes beyond our understanding of words.  At the same time His words show us the heart of God, but we need to hear the rest of the story to respond. 

Every teaching of Jesus is preparing us for “something greater.  Jesus told us the Spirit will reveal for us all Jesus did and all He said.   The ability to understand is ours.  The scriptures told us that in last week’s gospel.  Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed.  Can we love God more than mother and father, sons and daughters and take up the challenge of discipleship?  That is the real question this gospel presents to us today.    

The real key for us to understand is that discipleship is a way of life.  The role of parents is to raise us to become independent of them.  If we can grasp that we can easily grasp the desire of God is for us to grow in our dependence on Him That is what it means to lose our life and at the same time find life.  Encountering God and discovering His desires to give us all that is good should be our motivating force. 

Loving God with our entire being is possible as we become increasingly dependent on the transforming power of the Spirit. As love of God grows deeper within us, we see how we need to grasp the rest of the story.  The key to that lies hidden in the words and actions of Christ.  “Listen to me” has always been the soft whispering plea of God.  Telling us the way to happiness lies in embracing Christ.  The way to peace lies in Him. The way to fullness of life lies in Him. Our ability to love our parents, children, spouses, and life itself lies in Him. 

The rest of the story for the disciples lies ahead of them as they will discover this as He is crucified. That for them was a devastating moment and even His rising confused them.  What His death meant was not understood.  Not until Pentecost did any of it make sense to them.  The Spirit opened their eyes and hearts to understand what loving God demanded of them. They understood the rest of the story was to live in the power of the Spirit and proclaim the kingdom has come to earth. 

For us, the rest of the story lies ahead of us also. We cannot listen to six verses of scripture that will make no sense to us if we do not allow the Spirit to open our eyes.   We cannot love properly until we feel the love of God poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.  We are challenged to pay attention and listen to the words of Christ as He challenges our actions, our motivations, and our desires.  It is a journey we avoid. Like the woman at the well, we would prefer to talk about theology. Something abstract and certainly not something that makes us uncomfortable.