Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jan 12 2025

Scripture Study for

The stories of Elisha are filled with examples of God saving people in distress. Through the young prophet God purifies water for one city; fills all the empty vessels of a poor widow with oil, saving her from creditors; cures a stew that has been poisoned; heals a foreigner of leprosy. Gratitude to the prophet was thus really gratitude to God. In the reading we see also the prophet’s gratitude, expressed through the promise of a child for an elderly couple. The woman does indeed have a son (who will fall ill, die, and be raised by the prophet), once again showing that the God of Israel is a God a life.

Paul has been arguing that the death of Christ brought an end to the reign of sin and death. How does this work? When one is in bondage to someone, Paul says, that bondage naturally ends when we die (6:7). In the same way, if we die with Christ in baptism we are freed from bondage to sin. We are also raised with him and are freed from the power of sin and death. Paul’s larger point here is ethical: because Christians have died to sin, and are no longer under its power, they must stop acting as if they were. They must start living for God, not continuing to serve sin.

Jesus warns his disciples that the gospel will not be received in all quarters and that he will prove, both during and after his earthly life, to be a cause of division. His followers should know that being his disciple will be the hardest thing they have ever had to do, requiring more of them than they imagine: losing family, even their lives. They will have to “take up their crosses,” the instrument of their deaths. Yet this death will lead to life—a promise only those who have faith in Jesus can believe. Even those who receive the one who proclaims the gospel will gain their reward. Both those who sacrifice for Jesus and those who receive them are assured that their efforts will redound to them in the end.

Dec 16 2024

Kingdom Fitness

One quality is essential for being a disciple—commitment. When Elisha asks the prophet’s permission to kiss his parents good-bye, Elijah answers somewhat ambiguously, but Elisha realizes this is the hour of decision. He not only kills and cooks his oxen but burns the plow they came with, wiping out all connection to his past trade. There is no report on how his parents felt about this, but it signals Elisha’s commitment. Eventually, it won him a double portion of Elijah’s spirit.

Jesus outlines the fitness program his disciples must measure up to: an ability to live without the comforts of home, a freedom from any ties to family that might prevent preaching the kingdom of God, and the ability to live such a life with total commitment and without any regret. All this is the work of the Spirit within us, liberating us from what can hold us in place, unable to move and help bring God’s kingdom into the world.

When Paul talks about Christ setting us free for freedom, he too refers to casting off any yoke that could bind or enslave us. Like Jesus, Paul voices a call to live by the Spirit, that breath of God that blows us where it wills. The Spirit can free us from any inclination either to “bite and devour” another, as in calling down fire from heaven on them, or to be consumed by others who wish us harm. By surrendering to the Spirit, we will become fit.

Consider/Discuss

What kind of commitment have you made to be a disciple of the Lord?
How do you understand what it means to be free? Do some kinds of freedom end up enslaving you?

Responding to the Word

Lord, we ask you for the freedom that truly frees us to love as you love, to have the mind that was in Christ Jesus, and to allow us to empty ourselves so you can fill us. Make us fit for the work of the kingdom through the gift of your Spirit.

Dec 16 2024

Scripture Study for

Elijah’s symbolic act of throwing his cloak over Elisha indicates that Elisha has been invested with the power and authority of Elijah. It also suggests that a new generation of prophets is on the horizon. This account describes the conflict that exists between two fundamental responsibilities: fidelity to the call from God and fidelity to one’s primary family obligations. Elisha has been commissioned by God to be a prophet, and it is up to him to decide whether or not he can make the radical break from the past that this commission requires.

Paul states that Christ did not free the Galatians from one form of bondage only to have them submit to another. Habits of mind and heart, addictions of all kinds, retain their hold even after they are renounced. Freedom itself is a frightening thing, but it requires the willing renunciation of whatever might enslave them. Paul also insists that the freedom to which the Galatians have been called is not an invitation to license. Though no longer under the bondage of the law, the Galatians are not free to live lawless lives. They are expected to “love your neighbor as yourself” (cf. Leviticus 19:18).

Some people of Samaria remained in Israel during the Exile and intermarried with neighboring foreigners. Because of this, the returning Jews considered them ritually unclean and kept them from helping with rebuilding the temple. The Samaritans then built their own temple on Mt. Gerizim, and they refused hospitality to Jews who traveled through Samaria on the way to worship in Jerusalem. Jesus encountered three prospective followers along the way. The first one enthusiastically offers commitment; the other two wish to postpone joining Jesus until they have put their immediate affairs in order. Jesus emphasizes the demands that discipleship will exact. His followers must be willing to relinquish all. While followers should be enthusiastic in their dedication, they should also be prepared to pay the price of wholehearted commitment.

Dec 11 2024

Called to Follow

Dear D____,

I email you because a young man has asked my advice. He has encountered the living God and has fallen in love. In return, he wants to follow God with all of his heart. But he is not sure what path he should take. Today’s readings confuse him: Elijah permits Elisha to say good-bye to his family and then the younger prophet follows Elijah wholeheartedly; Jesus tells a man to leave his family behind immediately and not look back. The statement, “I will follow you wherever you go,” is how he feels, he says. But what does that mean? Should he leave the possibility of having a family behind and consider the priesthood? Is it that the deeper route, the more serious road to holiness?

D., you are a man of eighty-plus years who has lived a deeply Christian life. You are one of the most committed disciples that I know. Ever since your first Cursillo weekend, you have kept your eyes fixed on Jesus. You have not turned back. You linked arms with your wife and followed a straight path toward the Lord, walking together, raising your children to be faith-filled men and women of God. And you have touched so many, including me.

This young man’s hesitation about the priesthood comes from peers whom he sees living what he calls “a dandified Christianity,” in which a man is seen for his commitment, in religious garb that is obvious to all, adopting “a higher path” from which to look down upon the worldly life of family and work. That does not appeal to him. He wonders what is right for him.

As a Christian layman, your faithfulness has been unseen and unsung. He would be inspired by your example. Would you be willing to talk with him? Thanks! K.

Consider/Discuss

The Catholic Church has often considered that to be ordained or a vowed religious was “a higher calling.” The Second Vatican Council emphasized that all of the baptized are called to holiness, to follow Jesus without reserve, without looking back. In your own life’s calling, what is the narrow path that best leads you to the Lord? Temptations can knock both ordained and lay people off track, though the particular temptations may be different. How can we all, the people of God, help each other toward holiness?
In today’s reading, St. Paul suggests that we serve one another, that the whole law is summed up in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Guided by the Spirit, do we dip a toe into the waters of Christian self-sacrifice or do we plunge in wholeheartedly? Are we willing to give and give and give even when there is a cost?

Living and Praying with the Word

Jesus, you set your face resolutely toward Jerusalem, no matter what it was going to cost you. On our own power, we waffle and wander and weave. Send us a double dose of your Holy Spirit so that we stand firm, so that your determination is our determination, your willingness to give of yourself is our willingness to give. You empower us. You strengthen us. We depend on your help. When things succeed, help us to be grateful and not proud. For to you is the glory for all that is good! With the psalmist, we sing, “My heart is glad and my soul rejoices.” We too want to follow you wherever you go. Glory to you, God of the heavens and the earth!

Dec 11 2024

Scripture Study for

In the first recorded instance of “passing the mantle,” the prophet Elijah signals to Elisha that he is to be his successor. In a dramatic gesture typical of biblical prophets, Elijah walks past the young man, throws his mantle on him, and continues on, leaving the bewildered Elisha to run after him. The invitation is made, but the one invited must accept wholeheartedly and immediately. Elisha does accept, only making the reasonable request to say good-bye to his family. But the call of a prophet means giving up absolutely everything to serve God, and the first test is the willingness to leave family behind without a word, and even to sever oneself from one’s past life. Elisha signals his total commitment to his new role as attendant and successor of Elijah by destroying the instruments of his former work.

Thus far in his Letter to the Galatians, Paul has argued strenuously that Jews who have become Christians are no longer subject to the Law, at least not in the same way as before. Gentiles too ought not to place themselves under the “discipline” of the Law; all should accept the freedom they have been given through faith in Christ. Some Galatians, however, seem to have taken this to mean that their “freedom” means liberty to do whatever they want. This is no freedom, Paul says, but slavery of a different kind, slavery to the flesh. Those who live by the Spirit serve Christ, not that part of them that resists God’s will. Christian freedom is freedom to live for Christ and in service of one’s neighbor. Only to the extent that their life in the Spirit releases them from bondage to their own passions and selfishness can Christians call themselves truly free.

As Jesus begins his final journey to Jerusalem, where he knows he will be killed (9:22), he encounters three individuals who would follow him—which means following him to Jerusalem and all that stands for. Each is warned of the cost. They will endure insecurity and they will have to give up even their own family duties for a greater obligation. Everyone must consider carefully the cost of following Jesus, because although he leads them to the kingdom of God, the way to the kingdom necessarily goes through Jerusalem. Those who look ahead to the kingdom will be tempted to look back at what they left once they arrive at Jerusalem, but this will deter them from their course, just as looking back while plowing risks ruining the field with crooked furrows.