13th Sunday of Ordinary Time
In the first reading, a woman in the village of Schunem shows great hospitality to the prophet Elisha, even to the point of building and furnishing a little room for him on the roof of her house whenever he visits. She is childless, so Elisha promises she will soon fondle a baby son. (And, when that son suddenly dies as a young man [2 Kings 4:18-37], Elisha comes from twenty miles away and brings him back to life.) Life is given twice where there was no hope of life.
In the second reading, Saint Paul writes that those baptized are baptized into Christ’s death and buried with him! He adds that if we die with Christ, we shall also live with him. Again, we have the promise of life, life despite the seeming contradiction.
In the gospel, Jesus tells us, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Jesus exemplified this by accepting to be crucified for us. He was given new and resurrected life. We remember this when we celebrate the Eucharist as he gives himself to us in the bread and wine of the Mass. He also asks us to pour ourselves out for him in return by how we treat our neighbor, our family, the poor, and all who need our help and whom he sends into our lives.
Jesus asks us to carry our crosses daily. We cannot do it without the communion that breaks his bread and shares it with others and without drinking the chalice that Jesus gives us and which we must drink for him and whoever is our neighbor. Only in this way can we bring true life from death.
Let Us Pray:
O Lord, our God, grant us grace to desire you with our whole heart so that desiring you, we may seek you with a whole heart and find you; so, finding you, we may love you. (Saint Anselm)
