“Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward.” Mt 10:37-42
13th Ordinary Sunday Cycle A
God cannot be outdone in generosity. If you are generous with Him, He would be more generous than you. Jesus once promised His apostles that if they give up family and property for His sake, they will receive back from Him a hundred times more families and properties. This is my experience in all my 37 years as a priest.
I guess God is generous not only to those who gave up everything to minister to Him, but He is also generous to those who help His ministers. This is the story in the first reading of the woman of influence who welcomed Elisha in her house in Shunem. She was repaid with a baby son by the recommendation of the prophet. 2 Kgs 4:8-11, 14-16a
However besides a hundred times more families and properties, Jesus assured His followers of persecution besides. All His apostles suffered and even died in His mission. But they have been rewarded with eternal happiness in heaven. This is in fulfilment of what Jesus has promised in today’s gospel that “Whoever loses his life for Jesus’ sake will find it”.
In the second reading St. Paul repeats this promise in his letter to the Romans “If we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.” Rom 6:3-4, 8-11.
If we seek to find what we are asking from God, we must be ready to lose whatever we are holding on. To find we must first lose. After all whatever we shall find from God is much better than anything else we might already have.
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