MONDAY of 15th Week, uneven numbered year
“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace on earth; it is not peace I have come to bring, but a sword.For I have come to set son against father, daughter against mother, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law, a person’s enemies will be the persons of his own household.No one who prefers father or mother to me is worthy of me. No one who prefers son or daughter to me is worthy of me.Anyone who does not take his cross and follow in my footsteps is not worthy of me.Anyone who finds his life will lose it, anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Jesus offers to us a list of recommendations, advice that goes deep and is hard to hear, destined to form the disciples who are getting ready for their mission. Jesus begins by revealing to them what will be hard for them when they teach : ’You will have enemies in your own household.’ It is the risk we take when we confront close members of our family who don’t understand who Jesus is. It is good for us to be enlightened and to be strengthened by the Light of the Word.We are made for God and our heart finds a resting place in Him. Creation predisposes us for this mystery of Love.All that is given to us on earth is a path that gives us a glimpse of the fact that we are loved. Jesus asks us to place him at the highest level on the scale of Love : ’Whoever loves his mother of father more than me is not worthy of me.’ He proposes to let us be accompanied by Him as a Presence of God for : ’Whoever welcome some of these little ones in my name welcomes me.’
“Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me; and anyone who welcomes me welcomes welcomes the one who sent me.Anyone who welcomes a prophet because he is a prophet will have a prophet’s reward; and anyone who welcomes an upright person because he is upright will have the reward of an upright person.”
When we go through our lives accompanied by Jesus and as we welcome Him into our home, this is to enjoy the reward of prophets and the just. We need to have the courage to deepen our understanding as to how we can dwell in the order established by God. We are children of our Heavenly Father, sisters and brothers who love one another. All the loves which are in us and which God gives to us God, in His Infinite Love will blossom and this blossoming will have no end.We have the experience that we hold on to the gifts God gives us in a hidden way, and this is why Jesus says ’ Don’t think I have come to bring peace on earth, but the sword. I have come to separate man from his father, daughter from her mother…’ Psychologists have spoken about mothers( fathers) who captivate their children, not leaving them free. It is something that happens in a very subtle way and which means that it will be very hard for divine life to blossom in us. The trial would be to stop at the gift of God more than at God Himself. To possess the earth in view of dominating God and one’s brothers is an orientation of violence.
“If anyone gives as much as a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is a disciple, then in truth I tell you, he will certainly not go without his reward.”
Jesus’ advice gives us a responsibility : that of respecting someone else, we ought to be aware that the one who lives in the Lord, whoever it may be, has to be considered as the Lord Himself. Saint John Chrysostom tells us ’’ If love is sown everywhere, it would bring about countless good things.’ In a delicate manner, Jesus came to separate, restore liberty and space where they were lacking.Life on earth is a preparation for the wedding feast which celebrates the mystery of the greatest Love of Jesus for the world. We must follow the path of liberation that Jesus Himself came to offer us : “Whoever wants to keep his life will lose it, whoever wants to lose his life for me will keep it” he says.We are created for a Love that goes beyond all the kinds of love that exist. In the Eucharist we bring the wine and the bread ; these are the offering of links that God established amongst us and that we place again in the unique Link of Jesus and his Father, of the Heart of Jesus and Mary. So the hundredfold is given to us in order to make of these relationships of love ones where God Himself gives Himself and remains in them.The one who will have offered mother, father, children, what was given to
him from Heaven, will obtain hundredfold, that is an overflowing of life and Infinite Love already on this earth.