Welcoming... God, God's Message & God's Messenger
June 28, 2020: 13th Sunday in Ordinary time
2 Kings 4: 8-11, 13-16; Romans 6: 3-4, 8-11; Matthew 10:37-42
'Welcome Holy Spirit' - you are familiar with that famous hymn, aren't you? Can you go back and think of what you felt the first time you heard those lines - Welcome Holy Spirit... a little amused at least, at those lyrics? Perhaps, it was inspired by Benny Hinn's book Good Morning Holy Spirit (or was it the otherwise?)... anyway, the words do tickled a smile in people's hearts those days. Though now we have gotten used to that hymn, the words are still very homely, down to earth and totally informal. In fact welcoming God, is a beautiful attitude, though God is always there and all the time everywhere! So what would welcoming God, really mean?
Welcoming God would mean an entire life style, a totally unique priority list, an entirely unworldly mindset if we can use that phrase! That is what Jesus says. Just imagine this conversation between two real people, who had both lost their fathers just a few weeks earlier... one said, for him it was an obligation to stay home, losing a few prospects of his future and career, just to ensure his mother felt safe and secure. The other said, he just couldn't do that, as a matter of fact. He was a Priest, belonging to a Congregation, who had a whole parish community to take care of... he shared how with his call and commitment as a Religious, he could not prioritise the care of his mother. However, he luckily had his siblings to leave that to. In fact, when it comes to giving priority to God and God's call, nothing can claim precedence. This is the message that the Lord wants to communicate.
Welcoming God would mean prioritising God over everything and all. How many Christian families today stand shattered and challenged because of the kind of priorities that the members in the family held on to: Egocentric spouses, money centered siblings, career centered parents, pleasure oriented kids, materialistic mentalities and Godless lives! Sometimes an experience such as what we are facing today, a lockdown or a quarantine, a sickness or a setback, makes us realise how weird our priorities have been! But should we wait for such situations? Are we looking to blame it on something, without really taking stock of our real priorities in life? Welcoming God would mean, rearranging our priorities and looking at God's place in our daily life, yes... our daily life - not the occasion show we put up, may be weekly or seasonally.
Welcoming God would mean prioritising God over everything and all. How many Christian families today stand shattered and challenged because of the kind of priorities that the members in the family held on to: Egocentric spouses, money centered siblings, career centered parents, pleasure oriented kids, materialistic mentalities and Godless lives! Sometimes an experience such as what we are facing today, a lockdown or a quarantine, a sickness or a setback, makes us realise how weird our priorities have been! But should we wait for such situations? Are we looking to blame it on something, without really taking stock of our real priorities in life? Welcoming God would mean, rearranging our priorities and looking at God's place in our daily life, yes... our daily life - not the occasion show we put up, may be weekly or seasonally.
Welcoming God's Message is one of the daily dispositions of welcoming God. It would be hypocritical to SAY that I need God and LIVE as if I don't. I may do things that show others that I need God. I may speak to others about me and my life, giving them an idea that I value God. But if that is not translated into my daily life and my regular choices, I am failing to live a life that is integral. What matters most is not what I feel like or what I keep saying, but what I really live on a daily basis.
Welcoming or Accepting God's message truly means changing my life according to that message; it is dying to sin and being alive for God in Christ, says St. Paul today. Dying to sin, means saying no to those which would do away with God. God cannot be where there is hatred; God cannot be where there is injustice and exploitation; God cannot be where there is lie and evil; God cannot be were there envy and treachery; because God is love and love is against all these! Welcoming God's message would mean saying no to all these, and choosing God above all, above my pride, my anger, my hurts, my tendency to settle scores, my wish to see the doom of the other! Yes, it means choosing love, when I say I am ready to welcome God and God's message.
Welcoming or Accepting God's message truly means changing my life according to that message; it is dying to sin and being alive for God in Christ, says St. Paul today. Dying to sin, means saying no to those which would do away with God. God cannot be where there is hatred; God cannot be where there is injustice and exploitation; God cannot be where there is lie and evil; God cannot be were there envy and treachery; because God is love and love is against all these! Welcoming God's message would mean saying no to all these, and choosing God above all, above my pride, my anger, my hurts, my tendency to settle scores, my wish to see the doom of the other! Yes, it means choosing love, when I say I am ready to welcome God and God's message.
Welcoming God's Messengers, is a disposition of openness and humility - being open to God and God's marvellous and mysterious ways of revealing Godself to me - through persons, events and signs. A new person we come across, a poor person we see suffering, a hapless person we exploited...all these are messengers of God! And being humble is to receive God's message from anyone, even those from whom we least expect it! The Shunammite woman we come across in the first reading had a special eye for this observation! She spotted the Messenger of God in Elisha and the consequence of it, we know so gladly.
Welcoming God's messengers would truly mean being open minded, being authentic in our relations with all, being forthright in our dealings with anyone, being truthful and honest about our feelings and attitudes, being ready to form them all according to the mind of Christ: did not St. Paul instruct us to put on the mind of Christ - let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus (Phil 2:5). It is easier to think of God's messengers as people who are set apart, people who are in ministries, people who are so-called 'chosen'...but not just those! God's messengers are all those who bring God's message on a daily basis - parents for children, children for parents, bosses for employees, employees for bosses, the poor on the streets, the neighbour in living quarters, the stranger in a bus, anyone who challenges us about our priorities, our mind in Christ and our way of life. Are we ready to notice, accept and welcome them?
Welcoming God's messengers would truly mean being open minded, being authentic in our relations with all, being forthright in our dealings with anyone, being truthful and honest about our feelings and attitudes, being ready to form them all according to the mind of Christ: did not St. Paul instruct us to put on the mind of Christ - let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus (Phil 2:5). It is easier to think of God's messengers as people who are set apart, people who are in ministries, people who are so-called 'chosen'...but not just those! God's messengers are all those who bring God's message on a daily basis - parents for children, children for parents, bosses for employees, employees for bosses, the poor on the streets, the neighbour in living quarters, the stranger in a bus, anyone who challenges us about our priorities, our mind in Christ and our way of life. Are we ready to notice, accept and welcome them?
If we really give a serious thought to our Christian living today, it could really be a mighty big challenge. A remarkable thinker of the past century, Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes in his book The Cost of Discipleship, "being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God's will." Is this not what we are repeatedly reminded by our Holy Father today?
Let us pay heed to the precious question from the Word today: Are you ready to Welcome God, to welcome God's message and to welcome God's messengers... in whatever form and whichever way? What would my response be?
Let us pay heed to the precious question from the Word today: Are you ready to Welcome God, to welcome God's message and to welcome God's messengers... in whatever form and whichever way? What would my response be?