(This is an abbreviated commentary. Gospel passage at the end of the commentary)
The gospel this Sunday talks about those “who love father or mother more than me” as not being worthy disciples of Jesus. It is not true, by the way, that this is the battle cry of the Singles Apostolate, and the perennial excuse used by them to leave their families and attend apostolate activities. But it does seem ironic that this gospel would follow the wonderful Family Day celebration that we just had last Sunday.
Clearly, the call to discipleship of Jesus is a radical one. Jesus is our all in all. Nothing else should take precedence. I recall one of our SE-2 classmate who entered the seminary and eventually became a priest two years ago, Fr. Kliff Gavina. During his ordination, Fr. Kliff recounted the question his bishop asked him a few days before he became a priest. “Kliff, do you love God,” his bishop asked. “Why, of course, bishop, I have chosen to be a priest,” Fr. Kliff replied. “Do you love God enough for you to give up your priesthood,” the bishop asked this time. Fr. Kliff was puzzled. The bishop explained, “Loving God is our most important task, and all else is second.”
Clearly also, Jesus is not anti-family. Later on, in this same gospel (Matthew 15:4 and following), Jesus defends the commandment of “honor your father and mother” and criticizes the Hebrews for creating loopholes for being exempted from this commandment.
Perhaps, a closer look at this gospel can reveal another facet that can guide us in our walk towards discipleship.
In the verse “he who loves father or mother more than me,” the Greek word used for love is philei, which is different from the Greek word used for love in the verse “you should love your neighbor,” which is agapan. Philei is used by Matthew in a pejorative sense, as in “to attach oneself to,” or “to take one’s pleasure in this or that” as in the following verses also found in Matthew: “when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues so that others may see them,” (Mt 6:5) or in “they love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues” (Mt 23:6).
Jesus is therefore not against loving one’s family, but against being attached to them, even to the extent of violating the values of the Kingdom of God. When one, for example, protects and harbors a family member who has violated the law and done wrong to others, then that person is not worthy of being a disciple.
We believe there’s another message in this gospel that is apt in our celebration of Family Day. While Jesus does not want wrongful attachment to the family to get in the way of discipleship, he wants our families to be our home base in our service for the Kingdom. In 1 Timothy 3, St. Paul requires that the leaders of the church be one who manages his family well.
Our families become our refuge as well as our source of inspiration for service. But a family does not just become a home base. We make it a home base, so that it is a refuge and source of inspiration for our other members. We do this through the spoken word that encourages one another, the meaningful touch that comforts everyone, the high value that we place on family as shown by our presence – both quantity and quality time, and the vision of the future that we share with our children and our parents.
Tonight, we will pray for our families, our home bases. The choice is not between family or discipleship. It is not “either or” it is “and.” Our family helps us in our walk of being Jesus’ disciple and, as a disciple, we build families of little churches which become glimpses of God’s eternal reign.
Matt 10:37-42
37 "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;
38 and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
40 "He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me.
41 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.
42 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."
(NIV)
No comments:
Post a Comment