13th Sunday in Ordinary Time
28th June 2026
Lectionary Readings: 2 Kings 4:8-11.14-16a; Ps. 89:2-3. 16-19; Rom.6:3-4. 8-11; Mt.10:37-42
Theme: Following Jesus is the purpose of life
In the time of Jesus, and throughout the history of the Jewish People, a person’s ancestry was foundational to his/her identity. So, when Jesus put to his closest followers the proposition that they ought to love him more deeply than they loved their closest family members, he was moving into very sensitive territory. In Jewish culture, family was everything. Sons were a guarantee to their parents of security and sustenance in their old age. Moreover, all Jewish people saw themselves as children of Abraham, cementing them into their religious identity. In requesting his disciples to put allegiance to him above love of and fidelity to their parents and siblings, Jesus was asking them to step outside of the tradition in which they had lived their entire lives and to sacrifice their identity. He was asking them to put their entire trust in the God whose reign/kingdom he had devoted his life to establishing. In inviting his disciples to walk with him into a new future, he was inviting them to adopt a new identity founded on complete trust in him and to sacrifice their treasured allegiance to their ancestors and descendants.
Matthew attributed to Jesus the additional request that true disciples be prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice of following Jesus to death and resurrection to new life. That’s a demand that made sense to Matthew only because he wrote his Gospel well after Jesus had been executed on Calvary and been raised by God to new and everlasting life. Matthew had come to appreciate that faithful discipleship involved a readiness to follow Jesus to death and resurrection to new life. That explains how he was able to add that to a description of what was involved in faithful discipleship of Jesus. Matthew had discovered how nearly all of Jesus’ first disciples had been martyred.
All this boils down to the fact that Jesus was pointing out to all would-be disciples that following in his footsteps would require nothing less than total commitment. There would be no room for half-measures. They would have to put love of and dedication to him ahead of all else.
Our Second Reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans serves as a commentary on the central message of the gospel-reading in that it points out that once we understand the full meaning of our baptism into Christ as being baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection, we are changed irrevocably. Love for Jesus Christ becomes the central focus of our lives. That seed is sown in our baptism but it takes a life-time to grow.
While I suspect that Andrew Lloyd Webber did not have Paul’s Letter to the Romans in mind when he wrote the musical Aspects of Love, I want to suggest that when we allow ourselves to be captured by the love of Jesus Christ for us “nothing in the world will ever be the same”. Once dedication to Jesus is central to our living, our live will have undergone a complete change.
Our gospel-reading and what I have suggested is Paul’s commentary on it in the reading from Romans combine to prompt us all to stop and ask ourselves just how we might describe the relationship we have with Jesus Christ.
The readings for today also raise for us the theme of hospitality. That theme is very clear in the first reading from the Second Book of Kings. A woman and her elderly husband, residents of the town of Shunem, were in the habit of extending hospitality to the Prophet Elisha whenever he came that way. Without knowing exactly who Elisha was, the woman had concluded from observing him that he was “a holy man of God”. So, at her suggestion, she and her husband had the equivalent of a modern-day “granny flat” built on the roof of their home and furnished it with a bed, chair, table and lamp for their frequent visitor’s comfort. When Elisha asked his servant how he might tangibly recognize the hospitality extended to him by the generous couple, his servant drew his attention to the fact that the man of the house was well advanced in years and that the couple had no son to provide for them when they would no longer be self-sufficient. Elisha’s response was to call the woman and give her the best available social security any married couple could have at that time: “This time next year, you will hold a son in your arms.” (2 Kings 4: 16)
Life, these days, for many of us is filled with a mixture of constant activity and demands on our time from many sources. As a consequence, we can forget to extend needed hospitality to ourselves. To adequately assess the kind of relationship we have with Jesus and to assess how we rate ourselves as modern-day disciples, we would do well to give ourselves quality reflective time apart from our place of work.
Across the ages, there has been a succession of people like the couple from Shunem who have reached out to support, encourage and even accommodate those in their faith tradition who have dedicated their lives to providing spiritual guidance, counselling and other social services to members and their families of those faith communities. Let us not forget that hospitality is first and foremost an attitude to everyone we encounter. Our gospel-reading illustrates that Jesus was aware of that and of the fact that those who would extend hospitality to the disciples, he was commissioning, would have made, in doing so, the first step towards embracing their message.
In today’s first reading from Kings, the room or granny-flat provided for Elisha, was a space in which he could spend time in prayer and reflection after stepping back from the work in which he was occupied. Elisha’s promise to the woman of Shunem: “This time next year you will be nurturing a baby son.” is a symbolic way of stating that, in return for actually offering hospitality, she would find herself embracing new life. Similarly, whenever we withdraw from frenzied activity to reflect on our relationship with God and to examine the quality of our lived discipleship, we will find ourselves embracing and experiencing new life.
For Reflection and Discussion: 1. Our ‘calling’ is basically to ‘follow Christ’; but each day and many times during the day we are called to renew that commitment. How do you experience this? 2) How do the following verses from our Psalm sum up our celebration and learning in the Liturgy?
“Blessed are the people who know how to acclaim you, O Lord,
who walk in the light of your countenance.
17 In your name they rejoice all day long,
and they exult in your righteousness.
18 You are the strength in which they glory,
and by your kindness our horn is exalted.
19 For the Lord is our shield,
the Holy One of Israel, our King.”
Bibliography:Due to unforeseen circumstances limiting my time, I have taken this commentary written (with some of my own changes) by an Australian Christian Brother, living in Rome: Brother Julian McDonald, cfc
This week’s Sunday Liturgy Commentary was prepared by
Bernadette Teresa Chellew, KZN, South Africa. Bat Kol alumna 2008
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