Other Sunday and Holy Day Readings
13th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (Cycle A)
Readings:
2 Kings 4:8-11, 14-16a
Psalm 89:2-3, 16-17, 18-19
Romans 6:3-4, 8-11
Matthew 10:37-42
All Scripture passages are from the New American Bible unless designated NABRE (New American Bible Revised Edition), NJB (New Jerusalem Bible), IBHE (Interlinear Bible Hebrew-English), IBGE (Interlinear Bible Greek-English), or LXX (Greek Septuagint Old Testament translation). CCC designates a citation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The word LORD or GOD rendered in all capital letters is, in the Hebrew text, God's Divine Name, YHWH (Yahweh).
The two Testaments reveal God's divine plan for humanity, which is why we read and relive the events of salvation history contained in the Old and New Testaments in the Church's Liturgy. The Catechism teaches that the Liturgy reveals the unfolding mystery of God's plan as we read the Old Testament in light of the New and the New Testament in light of the Old (CCC 1094-1095).
The Theme of the Readings: The Emissaries Who Deliver God's Word
The First
Reading usually introduces the theme of the Gospel. The First and Gospel
Reading is about receiving the "holy men" who serve as God's representatives. In
Scripture, a "holy man" refers to someone with the mission and responsibility
as the bearer of God's word. In today's New Covenant Church, the men of our
ministerial priesthood fulfill that role. Those of us who are the faithful of
the priesthood of believers expect God's representatives to be trained in
Biblical exegesis and the Church's interpretation of Sacred Scripture so that
they will declare God's authoritative word from the pulpit and not just their
opinions, thoughts, or prejudices.
In the First Reading, a woman generously receives God's prophet Elisha into her home because, as she told her husband, "I know that he is a holy man of God." Not only did Elisha's presence in her home enrich her life, but Elisha rewarded her generosity with his petition for the Lord to bless his barren benefactress with a child.
In the Responsorial Psalm, the psalmist proclaims God's steadfast covenant love for His people and His faithfulness to the promises He made to them. He described God's protection of His people and their king, His chosen representative to the covenant people. Chief among the kings of Israel was David, the divinely anointed shepherd-king with whom God made an eternal covenant. In Jesus of Nazareth, Son of God and Son of David, God fulfilled the promises of the everlasting Davidic covenant. The resurrected Jesus Christ is the eternal King of God's New Covenant people.
In the Second Reading, Christ's representative, St. Paul, wrote how Christians receive an infusion of divine grace through the Sacrament of Baptism. The regenerative waters of baptism yield a supernatural transformation and rebirth. Baptism not only frees baptized persons from slavery to sin but allows them to begin a new life in which they are no longer a child of Adam but become children in the family of God. This "new life" is not merely symbolic. Paul wrote that in Christian Baptism, the old self dies with the crucified Christ, and in new life, God calls them to live not only in freedom from "sin" but freedom from "self." The sinner is immersed in water and is thus "buried" with Christ, with whom the Christian is also raised up through the water to a resurrection as a new creation, infused with "divine life" as a member of God's holy covenant family.
In the Gospel Reading, Jesus taught the conditions of discipleship. Jesus, the Living Word of God to humanity, warned that the decision to follow Him might cause a break in the bonds of our friendships and families. Alluding to His future crucifixion, Jesus invited His disciples to follow Him in announcing the Kingdom in His healing ministry, suffering, and ultimately His glory. Jesus also spoke of the reward for receiving one of His emissaries and the Gospel message he carried. He promised that someone who does even a small act of kindness for one of His disciples would not lose his reward of eternal life.
In Jesus's Kingdom of the Church, the congregation and the priest have responsibilities. The assembly of the priesthood of believers has the responsibility to listen intently to the message of Christ's representative, and the priest has the responsibility to proclaim the word of God so they can apply his message to their lives. St. Paul advised St. Timothy concerning his ministerial duty to his congregation: I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and by the appearing of his kingly power: proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient, convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching (2 Tim 4:1-2). We should expect to respond positively to our priest's encouragements and reprimands, the intent of which is to keep us on the narrow path to eternal salvation.
The First Reading 2 Kings 4:8-11, 14-16a ~ The Shunammite Woman and Elisha's Blessing
8 One day Elisha came to Shunem, where there was a woman of influence, who urged him to dine with her. Afterward, whenever he passed by, he used to stop there to dine. 9 So she said to her husband, "I know that Elisha is a holy man of God. Since he visits us often, 10 let us arrange a little room on the roof and furnish it for him with a bed, table, chair, and lamp, so that when he comes to us, he can stay there." 11 Sometime later, Elisha arrived and stayed in the room overnight. [...] 14 Later, Elisha asked, "Can something be done for her?" His servant Gehazi answered, "Yes! She has no son, and her husband is getting on in years." Elisha said, 15 "Call her." When the woman had been called and stood at the door, 16a Elisha promised, "This time next year, you will be fondling a baby son."
The prophet Elisha was the successor of his mentor, the prophet Elijah. Just before he witnessed Elijah's assumption into Heaven, Elisha petitioned him to receive "a double portion of his spirit" (2 Kng 2:9-14). God granted the petition, and Elisha performed twice as many miracles as his predecessor.
The Biblical account reveals that Elisha often traveled between Mt. Carmel, the capital of Samaria, and the communities of the prophets in Gilgal, Bethel, and Jericho. He had a servant who traveled with him named Gehazi. Shunem was a town in the tribal lands of Issachar in the Jezreel Valley (Josh 19:18). The Shunammite woman was wealthy; her husband was a landowner with servants. Like the poor Gentile woman of Zarephath who shared her food and home with the prophet Elijah, this woman generously offered Elisha her hospitality. Then she decided to provide him with his own room in her house. These women are only two of many women in salvation history who opened their homes and gave their hospitality to God's representatives and the people of His faith community.
Elisha wanted to do something for the woman to show his appreciation. His servant, Gehazi, pointed out to Elisha that the woman had no son, and her elderly husband was unlikely to father a child. Women depended on adult sons to provide for them when they were widowed. Elisha approved his servant's suggestion and promised his benefactress that she would bear a child in the same season the following year.
This passage is one of seven stories of miraculous births in the Bible in addition to the birth of Jesus (the eighth miraculous birth):
There are only five annunciation stories in the Bible in which a woman received a direct message of a future birth by an agent of God:
There are three differences between Elisha's annunciation story and the gift of a child to the other barren women or the other annunciation stories in the Bible:
God is gracious to those who help, even in the smallest ways, to move forward His divine plan or aid His emissaries (see the Gospel reading). The inspired writer of the Letter to the Hebrews (believed by many to be St. Paul) warns us to be kind and generous to those in need because we may be unaware that we are entertaining angels (Heb 13:2).
Responsorial Psalm 89:2-3, 16-17, 18-19 ~ The Faithfulness of God's Promises
Response: "Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord."
2 The promises of the LORD I will sing
forever, through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness. 3 For
you have said, "My kindness is established forever; in heaven, you have confirmed
your faithfulness."
Response:
16 Blessed the people who know the joyful shout; in the light of your
countenance, O LORD, they walk. 17 At your name, they rejoice all the day, and
through your justice, they are exalted.
Response:
18 You are the splendor of their strength, and by your favor, our horn is
exalted. 19 For to the LORD belongs our shield, and the Holy One of Israel,
our king.
Response:
Psalm 89 is a lament over what the psalmist sees as God's unfulfilled covenant promises to David. Verses 2-3 mention God's promise that David's dynasty would be as long-lasting as the heavens, a statement of divine love and loyalty to the Davidic dynasty and throne (see verses 4-5, not in our reading). In the other verses in our reading, the psalmist proclaims God's steadfast love for His people and faithfulness to His promises. He describes God's protection of His people and Israel's king, God's chosen civil representative to the covenant people.
Chief among the kings of Israel was David, the divinely anointed shepherd-king with whom God made an eternal covenant (1 Sam 12-13; 2 Sam 7:11b-16, 29; 23:5; 1 Kng 2:4; 2 Chr 13:5; Sir 45:25). Jesus of Nazareth, Son of God and Son of David (Mt 1:1) fulfills the promises of the eternal Davidic covenant. The resurrected Jesus Christ is the eternal King of God's New Covenant Kingdom of the Universal Church on Earth and in Heaven. That God sent His Son to redeem His covenant people and inaugurate a New Covenant through the Davidic Redeemer-Messiah, as foretold by His prophets (i.e., Jer 31:31-34), is proof of His promise to remain faithful to His covenants and show love to those who love Him and observe His commandments (Dt 7:9; Neh 1:5; Dan 9:4).
Because of the references to the Davidic covenant, the Church reads verses of this psalm in the Liturgy for the Feast of St. Joseph (Ps 89:2-5, 27, 29). The events in the Gospels show that God kept His promise by sending God the Son to be born into the house (family) of David to which Joseph and Mary belonged (Mt 1:1, 20; Lk 1:32-33), giving Him an eternal kingship.
The Second
Reading Romans 6:3-4, 8-11 ~ The Regeneration of Baptism
3 You cannot
have forgotten that all of us, when we were baptized into Christ Jesus, were
baptized into his death. 4 So by our baptism into his death, we were buried
with him, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father's glorious
power, we too should begin living a new life. [...] 8 But we believe that, if we
died with Christ, then we shall live with him too. 9 We know that Christ has
been raised from the dead and will never die again. Death has no power over him
any more. 10 For by dying, he is dead to sin once and for all, and now the
life that he lives is life with God. 11 In the same way, you must see
yourselves as being dead to sin but alive for God in Christ Jesus.
In verses 3-4, St. Paul told the Roman Christians (and us) how God's abundant grace reaches us and the effect of His infusion of divine grace. Through the Sacrament of Baptism, the faithful receive God's grace, which frees them from slavery to sin. The entomological meaning of the word "baptize" is "dip" or "immerse." Immersion was a common practice in the old Sinai Covenant for ritual purification and conversion (i.e., John the Baptizer's immersion for repentance).
However, our immersion in the Baptism of Christ goes far beyond ritual symbolism. When we receive the Sacrament of Baptism, a supernatural sequence of events takes place that images the life of Christ (see Col 2:9-14; Jn 3:3-8 and CCC 628; 977-978):
In his instructions to the newly baptized, St. Ambrose taught, "The Lord who wanted his benefactions to endure, the serpent's plans to be turned to naught, and the harm done to be put right, delivered a sentence on mankind: 'You are dust, and to dust you shall return' (Gen 3:19), and made man subject to death." Then, St. Ambrose continued, God in His mercy provided a remedy: "The remedy was given him: man would die and rise again ... You ask me how?" Answering his own question, St. Ambrose informed the newly baptized, "Pay attention! So that in this world too the devil's snare would be broken, a rite was instituted whereby man would die, being alive, and rise again, being alive ... Through immersion in water the sentence is blotted out: 'You are dust and to dust you shall return'" (St. Ambrose, De Sacramentis, II,6).
In his letters, Paul taught that the Sacrament of Baptism is not merely a symbolic death and rebirth. Baptism is a genuine participation in Christ's saving mission of death, burial, and resurrection as figured in water immersion (death and burial) and coming "up" out of the water (resurrection). And it is necessary for our salvation (Mk 16:16; CCC 183, 1253; 1256, 1257). The old Law served as a tutor or a guardian (CCC# 1963) to prepare God's covenant people for rebirth into the family of God as the true spiritual heirs of Abraham and members of the One Body in Christ, the New Covenant Church (see Gal 3:25-28; Col 2:9-14;1 Cor 12:12-13; Eph 4:4-6).
The result is that we should live in "newness of life," and the "self" that belonged to sin no longer lives since Christ has freed us from sin's power of sin. The baptized believer is a new creation in Christ; as Paul wrote in Colossians 3:10, You have stripped off of your old behavior with your old self, and you have put on a new self which will progress towards true knowledge the more it is renewed in the image of its Creator. God created the human race in His image, and their original destiny was to live in His likeness of holiness (Gen 1:26-27). But the family of Adam became lost in trying to seek knowledge and wisdom apart from the will of God (Gen 2:17) and became slaves of sin. That is the "old self" (Rom 6:6) that must die. The "new self" is reborn through the waters of baptism into Christ, who is the true image of God and has come to restore fallen humanity to the splendor of that image that had been stained and distorted by sin.
In Romans 6:5-10, Paul focused on Christian conformity to the life of Christ. He made an argument in two steps, beginning each step with a conditional statement in verse 5 and again in verse 8. Verse 5 is not in our reading but is necessary for understanding Paul's point. Each statement expresses the hope that what we believe will become a reality through the promises of Jesus Christ. The argument centers on the Christian's conformity to the ethical pattern of Christ's death, His burial, and His glorious Resurrection, which brought about a release from slavery to sin and God's wrath and His glorious Resurrection to new life:
According to Paul, our old self is crucified with Christ in Christian Baptism. In the believer's new life, Christ calls the newly reborn Christian to live free from "sin" and "self." Again, it is necessary to repeat that our new life is not merely symbolic, and this is why Jesus commands, and the Church teaches, that the Sacrament of Christian Baptism is necessary for salvation (Mk 16:16; Acts 2:38, CCC 1257). The regenerative waters of baptism yield a transformation and rebirth. In Scripture, a "sign" points beyond the event to what is more significant. Baptism is a sign or symbol only in the sense that it is symbolic of the greater supernatural reality of the sacrament, which shows in a visible form God's action to perform what the physical event signifies, and that is the Christian's resurrection to a new life in Christ.
The sinner is immersed in water and is thus "buried" with Christ (Col 2:12). The Christian then is raised up through the water to resurrection in Christ (Rom 8:11) as a "new creation, infused with "divine life" (2 Pt 1:3-4; 2 Cor 5:17). The Christian becomes a member of God's family and one with the Body of Christ animated by the one Spirit (1 Cor 12:13; Eph 4:4ff). The Sacrament of Baptism in the Trinitarian formula of the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is the "first resurrection" because the Christian's resurrection will not be complete or final until the end of time when Christ returns in His Second Advent (1 Cor 15:12; Rev 20:5-6). Paul assures us that Christians freed from sin in the Sacrament of Baptism are also freed from the power of sin over their lives because God's grace is more powerful than the power of sin. The Fathers of the Church had the saying: "Born once, die twice; born twice, die once." They meant that someone born physically and spiritually in the Sacrament of Baptism would only experience physical death. That person would not suffer the spiritual death of eternal separation from God, the fate of someone who did not receive spiritual rebirth (see Rev 2:11).
| Christ's crucifixion and death --> | Christ's Resurrection --> | Christ's glorified new life and the Second Advent |
|
Our
crucifixion with Christ and our death to sin & self into the waters of
baptism --> |
Our resurrection to a new life through the power of the Holy Spirit = "born again" or "born from above" in the image of Christ and "raised up" through the water of baptism --> | Our final resurrection and glorification. |
10 For by
dying, he is dead to sin once and for all, and now the life that he lives is
life with God. 11 In the same way, you must see yourselves as being dead to
sin but alive for God in Christ Jesus.
In his commentary on this passage, St. John Chrysostom wrote about what it means to be
dead to sin in baptism: "Being dead to sin means not obeying it any more. Baptism
has made us dead to sin once and for all, but we must strive to maintain this
state of affairs, so that however many commands sins may give us, we no longer
obey it but remain unmoved by it, as a corpse does. Elsewhere, Paul even says
that sin itself is dead ... in order to show that virtue is easy. But here, since
he is trying to rouse his hearers to action, he says that they are the ones who
are dead" (St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Epistle of St. Paul to the
Romans).
There is no question that the early Church Fathers regarded baptism by water and the Spirit as more than a symbolic event. They recognized the sacramental character of baptism in which the believer died to sin by the power of the Holy Spirit and was resurrected to new life, being born again or from above. This teaching has come down to us unchanged after 2000 years. The Catechism of the Catholic Church expresses this doctrine: "This sacrament is called Baptism, after the central rite by which it is carried out: to baptize (Greek baptizein) means to 'plunge' or 'immerse'; the 'plunge' into the water symbolizes the catechumen's burial into Christ's death, from which he rises up by resurrection with him, as a 'new creature'" (CCC# 1214). "This sacrament is also called 'the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit,' for it signifies and actually brings about the birth of water and the Spirit without which no one 'can enter the kingdom of God" (CCC# 1215). Also, see Church Father Tertullian's 2nd century AD treatise On the Resurrection of the Flesh, 47.
From her earliest years, the Church considered the sacramental graces of Christian Baptism so crucial that even infants were not to be denied this special grace. The Church argued that, in obedience to the commands of the old Sinai Covenant, Joseph and Mary circumcised Jesus on the 8th day of His life (Lk 2:21), and He entered into the life of the covenant community. Therefore, children should be baptized (see St. Peter's command to baptize adults and children in Acts 2:38-39). Origen, Christain theologian and director of the School of Christian Catechesis in Alexandria, Egypt, wrote in the first quarter of the 200s about the necessity of the Sacrament of Baptism for infants to remove the stain of original sin: "The Church received from the Apostles the tradition of giving Baptism even to infants. For the Apostles, to whom were committed the secrets of divine mysteries, knew that there is in everyone the innate stains of sin, which must be washed away through water and the Spirit" (Origen, Commentary on Romans, 5.8). Withholding baptism from children was considered parental abuse.
The Gospel Reading Matthew 10:37-42 ~ The Conditions of Discipleship
Jesus said: 37
"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; 38 and whoever does not
take up his cross and follow after 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
"Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who
sent me. 41 Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a
prophet's reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is righteous
will receive a righteous man's reward. 42 And whoever gives only a cup of cold
water to one of these little ones to drink because he is a disciple; amen, I
say to you, he will surely not lose his reward."
The phrase "is not worthy of me" in 10:37 is more accurately translated as "does not deserve to belong to me." The Greek adjective axios has the sense of "belonging" rather than "worth" (Fr. Harrington, Sacra Pagina: The Gospel of Matthew, page 151). Jesus's warning in Matthew 10:34-37 is that the decision to follow Him and become a member of His covenant family may cause a break in the bonds within our human families.
38 and
whoever does not take up his cross and follow after 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.
Jesus was
alluding to His future crucifixion. He invited His disciples to follow Him in
announcing the Kingdom in His healing ministry, His suffering, and ultimately in
His glory. Crucifixion was a well-known form of capital punishment in Jesus's
time. It was invented by the Persians, adopted by the Greeks, and practiced by
the Romans for executions of non-Romans. Jews and Israelites found crucifixion
abhorrent and a curse to be hung on a tree, according to Deuteronomy 21:22-23. Although
the disciples could not have understood, Jesus's statement became a prophecy of
His future crucifixion.
In verses 38-39, Jesus contrasted temporal and eternal life and gave a warning. A disciple must be willing to embrace suffering for the sake of Jesus's Kingdom, even if the price of faithfulness is martyrdom. Anyone who tried to preserve his life by denying Jesus condemned himself to eternal destruction. But for anyone willing to lose his earthly life for His sake, Jesus promised the reward of everlasting life in the Kingdom of Heaven.
In verses 40-42, Jesus spoke of the promised rewards for welcoming Jesus's emissaries. The words "who sent me" in verse 40, referring to God the Father, may also be linked to the ones Jesus sent. The term "Apostle" in Greek means "the one sent." It was a rabbinic principle that "the representative of a person is like himself" (Mishnah: Ber., 5.5) and is the principle that underlies verse 40. Jesus's point was that He is God the Father's representative, and the disciples are His representatives. Therefore, whoever receives the disciples is, in effect, receiving Jesus. And since Jesus is the Father's representative, those who welcome the disciples also receive the Father and will be rewarded by Him.
41 Whoever
receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and
whoever receives a righteous man because he is righteous will receive a righteous
man's reward.
The focus of
this verse is the reward for receiving God's prophet and his message. In the
Bible, a prophet speaks the words of God, and a righteous person is entirely
obedient to the Law. Jesus defined "righteousness" in the New Covenant in the
Beatitudes Discourse and the Sermon on the Mount.
42 And whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because he is a disciple; amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward. "Little ones" refers to Jesus's disciples, the "children" who serve the Father by announcing the coming of the Kingdom. Jesus promised that someone who did even a small act of kindness for one of His disciples would not lose his reward of eternal life. Think of the implication of that promise and put it into action in your life today!
Catechism
references in this lesson (*indicates Scripture quoted or paraphrased in
the citation):
Psalm 89 (CCC 709)
Romans 6:4 (CCC 537, 628, 648*, 654, 658*, 730, 977, 1697); 6:8-11 (CCC 1987); 6:10 (CCC 1085); 6:11 (CCC1694)
Matthew 10:37 (CCC 2232); 10:38 (CCC 1506*), 10:40 (CCC 858)
To follow Christ is the first vocation of the Christian (CCC 2232*, 2233*)
Baptism is to die to self and to live for Christ (CCC 537*, 628*, 790*, 1213, 1226*, 1227*, 1228*, 1694*)
Grace justifies through faith and baptism (CCC 1987*)
Michal E Hunt, Copyright © 2017; revised 2023 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.