Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle A

2 Kings 4, 8-11 and 14-16
Romans 6, 3-4 and 8-11
Matthew 10, 37-42

The readings of today are all about life and welcome, and the relationship between the two. As a result of welcoming Elisha, the holy man of God, the woman of Shunem is given the gift of a child. As a result of welcoming Christ, the Holy One of God, we are all given the new life of which the second reading speaks. These readings have immediate application to the theme of welcoming the representatives of God who come preaching his word. Yet the theme of welcome extends likewise to every human being. Christ is the one who welcomes us into the life he shares with the Father, and therefore the only appropriate response for us -- as individuals and as a community -- is to extend welcome to all whom Christ welcomes, that is, to every human life. It would be a contradiction to accept the welcome of Christ but to reject another human life.

In welcoming other human lives, furthermore, it is necessary to apply the first part of the Gospel reading, namely, the embracing of the cross and the bringing of ourselves to nought. This is the opposite of the self-centered assertion of "pro-choice" and "my rights, my life." In contradiction to the idea that we are fulfilled by asserting ourselves (even at the cost of the life of an unborn child), the Lord teaches here that it is precisely in self-giving that we find ourselves. Parents give themselves to their children, whether born or in the womb, and in so doing they experience the very love of Christ and the life to which that love leads.