Uncomfortable Hospitality. The Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time 2020

   Uncomfortable Hospitality.

The Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time 2020

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June 28, 2020

2 Kings 4:8-16; Psalm 89; Romans 6:3-4, 8-11; Matthew 10:37-42

Hospitality was one of the key virtues that defined the people of the early church, and we see the imperatives for hospitality in these reading. The prophet Elisha is given hospitality by a woman of influence and because of her unselfish generosity, the prophet repays her by announcing that she will become a mother within a year’s time. The Gospel is filled with rewards for those who receive Jesus in to their souls, the prophet’s words, and the righteous, and whoever remembers those who are thirsty and need some relief will receive the rewards of a disciple. A Christian is one who practices radical hospitality and leads a life in service to others.

Following Vatican II, the Jesuits made a committed to a way of life that was summed up in a mission phrase: the service of faith and the promotion of justice. The objectives in our ministries were to form men and women to be with and for others. It meant that men and women would not live for themselves but for God and his Christ – for the person of Jesus who lived and died for all the world so he could reveal to us that God understands human suffering. We cannot even conceive of the love of God which does not include love for the least of our neighbors. We cannot say we love God if it does not include justice for others. Justice for others means that we have to make a radical stand in solidarity with the poor and those who are treated unfairly by our predominant systems.

Our mission has been updated over the years and we have be tasked with being companions in the mission of reconciliation and justice, which means to walk alongside those individuals and communities who are vulnerable, excluded, marginalized, and whose very humanity has been impoverished; with victims of abuse of power, conscience or sex; with the outcasts of this world, and with all those people the Bible calls the ‘poor of the earth.’ This is a Gospel of hope, which means we have to walk to the margins of society in order to build trust, refrain from judging, teaching, or correcting, in order to understand people so that they truly believe we are present with them and know their suffering.

We are not called to a comfortable ministry because reconciliation means that we have to be present at the table to begin with meaningful listening, and listening is not easy to do. It means that we have to take in all the anger, frustration, rage, and insults alongside the truth and misperceptions. It means that we have to respond graciously and with right speaking in order to assure others that we do care and we want to understand the suffering they hold. It means become comfortable with not having the answers or solutions and to know the power is not in our hands to shape the future. It means that we have to bother enough to even care. It means losing our lives for the sake of Jesus so that my neighbor and I can gain a new life together, a life that is uncharted and uncertain, a life in which the power dynamics have changed.

In our church, in our nation, it is clear we do not have the answers and we have a lot of work in our ministry of reconciliation. Our first step is to receive the other person, as an act of hospitality, and to know that hospitality is a repeated, constant action that is to be sustained. To receive another person is to hear his or her thoughts, to listen to one’s story even if it makes us uncomfortable and vulnerable, to be moved with compassion for the suffering one faces, and just to stand with the person in friendship because our human suffering touches theirs.

This is the cost of discipleship. It is the responsibility of discipleship. And yet, we preach the Gospel of hope, and though we will pass through suffering, we believe and we know that through us, God will create a better world. O God, we need your help.

Scripture for Daily Mass

First Reading:

Monday: (Acts 12) In those days, King Herod laid hands upon some members of the Church to harm them. He had James, the brother of John, killed by the sword, and when he saw that this was pleasing to the Jews he proceeded to arrest Peter also. It was the feast of Unleavened Bread.

Tuesday: (Amos 3) Hear this word, O children of Israel, that the Lord pronounces over you, over the whole family that I brought up from the land of Egypt: You alone have I favored, more than all the families of the earth; Therefore I will punish you for all your crimes.

Wednesday: (Amos 5) Seek good and not evil, that you may live; Then truly will the Lord, the God of hosts, be with you as you claim! Hate evil and love good, and let justice prevail at the gate.

Thursday: (Amos 7) Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent word to Jeroboam, king of Israel: “Amos has conspired against you here within Israel; the country cannot endure all his words. For this is what Amos says: Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be exiled from its land.”

Friday (Ephesians 2) You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets,
with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone.

Saturday (Amos 9) On that day I will raise up the fallen hut of David; I will wall up its breaches, raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old,

Gospel: 

Monday: (Matthew 16) When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

Tuesday: (Matthew 8) As Jesus got into a boat, his disciples followed him. Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by waves; but he was asleep. They came and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us!  We are perishing!”

Wednesday (Matthew 8) When Jesus came to the territory of the Gadarenes, two demoniacs who were coming from the tombs met him. They were so savage that no one could travel by that road. They cried out, “What have you to do with us, Son of God?

Thursday (Matthew 9) After entering a boat, Jesus made the crossing, and came into his own town. And there people brought to him a paralytic lying on a stretcher. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Courage, child, your sins are forgiven.”

Friday (John 20) Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But Thomas said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

Saturday (Matthew 9) The disciples of John approached Jesus and said, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?

Saints of the Week

June 28: Irenaeus, bishop and martyr (130-200) was sent to Lyons as a missionary to combat the persecution the church faced in Lyons. He was born in Asia Minor and became a disciple of Polycarp who was a disciple of the Apostle John. Irenaeus asserted that the creation was not sinful by nature but merely distorted by sin. As God created us, God redeemed us. Therefore, our fallen nature can only be saved by Christ who took on our form in the Incarnation. Irenaeus refutation of heresies laid the foundations of Christian theology.

June 29: Peter and Paul, apostles (first century) are lumped together for a feast day because of their extreme importance to the early and contemporary church. Upon Peter's faith was the church built; Paul's efforts to bring Gentiles into the faith and to lay out a moral code was important for successive generations. It is right that they are joined together as their work is one, but with two prongs. For Jesuits, this is a day that Ignatius began to recover from his illness after the wounds he sustained at Pamplona. It marked a turning point in his recovery.

June 30: The First Holy Martyrs of the Holy Roman Church (c. 64) were martyrs under Nero's persecution in 64. Nero reacted to the great fire in Rome by falsely accusing Christians of setting it. While no one believed Nero's assertions, Christians were humiliated and condemned to death in horrible ways. This day always follows the feast of the martyrs, Sts. Peter and Paul.

July 1: Junipero Serra, priest, was a Franciscan missionary who founded missions in Baja and traveled north to California starting in 1768. The Franciscans established the missions during the suppression of the Jesuits. San Diego, San Francisco, and Santa Clara are among the most famous. Serra’s statue is in the U.S. Capitol to represent California.

July 2: Bernard Realino, John Francis Regis, Francis Jerome, S.J. are known for their preaching skills that drew many to the faith, including many French Hugeunots. Regis and his companions preached Catholic doctrine to children and assisted many struck by the plague in Frances. Regis University in Denver, Colorado is named after John Regis.

July 3: Thomas, apostle, is thought to have been an apostle to India and Pakistan and he is best remembered as the one who “doubted” the resurrection of Jesus. The Gospels, however, testify to his faithfulness to Jesus during his ministry. The name, Thomas, stands for “twin,” but no mention is made of his twin’s identity.

This Week in Jesuit History

·      Jun 28, 1591. Fr. Leonard Lessius's teaching on grace and predestination caused a great deal of excitement and agitation against the Society in Louvain and Douai. The Papal Nuncio and Pope Gregory XIV both declared that his teaching was perfectly orthodox.

·      Jun 29, 1880. In France the law of spoliation, which was passed at the end of March, came into effect and all the Jesuit Houses and Colleges were suppressed.

·      Jun 30, 1829. The opening of the Twenty-first General Congregation of the order, which elected Fr. John Roothan as General.

·      Jul 1, 1556. The beginning of St Ignatius's last illness. He saw his three great desires fulfilled: confirmation of the Institute, papal approval of the Spiritual Exercises, and acceptance of the Constitutions by the whole Society.

·      Jul 2, 1928. The Missouri Province was divided into the Missouri Province and the Chicago Province. In 1955 there would be a further subdivision: Missouri divided into Missouri and Wisconsin; Chicago divided into Chicago and Detroit.

·      Jul 3, 1580. Queen Elizabeth I issued a statute forbidding all Jesuits to enter England.

·      Jul 4, 1648. The martyrdom in Canada of Anthony Daniel who was shot with arrows and thrown into flames by the Iroquois.