Matthew 10: 37-42
Jesus said to his apostles:
“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Total Self-Gift
We encounter a paradox of the Christian life in today’s Gospel: we find ourselves when we give ourselves away. In contrast, the world continually wants to sell us a false bill of goods. We are told to grasp for things and for people. In place of commitment and fidelity in our vocations and relationships, we are told that it is only reasonable to settle for mobility and change. In contrast, Jesus teaches us that the journey to happiness and fulfillment is through self-gift. In our self-gift, we do not lose our personalities or resign ourselves to joylessness, but rather become fully alive. Jesus out of love offered himself as a total self-gift to the Father. How, like Jesus, are we giving our whole life to the glory of God?
—Tom Hellenbrand, SJ, is a Jesuit scholastic of the Midwest Province studying philosophy at Saint Louis University.
Prayer
I have made a free oblation of myself to your Divine Majesty, both of life and of death, and I hope that you will give me grace and force to perform. This is all I desire. Amen.
—St. Edmund Campion, SJ