Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time A MT 10,37-42

Introduction

Did we listen carefully to the gospel? We were not outraged by the words: Who loves father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me ?! After all, blood ties are so strong that it seems quite useless and unnatural to build something or someone against them. After all, parents and children belong together, and what unites them is love.

Sermon

There is nothing more beautiful in this world than an organized family, where everyone is united by love, where the joys of one are also the joys of the others, and where the pain of them is the pain of all. And in this beautiful picture of family love are the words of Christ: He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. No one in the world has asked for it yet, and even if he wanted to, he would not have dared to say it because he would know that he has no right to do so. No teacher, no matter how much the disciples like him, will not get that much from them, and not a single leader from his faithful. Not a single friend would be so foolish as to ask, and not a single bride or groom could ask for it justly.

But Jesus asked for it. He dared, wanted, or even ordered that he be loved more than his loved ones. Simultaneously, however, he did not forbid loving his father, mother, brother, sister… Above this love, however, must be higher love, love for him, love for God. Surely we ask whether Christ achieved this, that people loved him more than their loved ones? Yes, he achieved! Not once, not just from someone, from a few people, but from whole crowds of innocent children who loved him more than their mothers and fathers. He got it from mothers and fathers who loved God more than their children. How many Christian parents could put love of God above parental love during the persecution? And even the thought of leaving orphans here could not break them in their convictions and faithfulness to God.

As we think about these facts, we ask ourselves one more question: Could God have asked for it? He could! And only he could make that request. The good that the mother demonstrates to the child is great, her tenderness is immense, her sacrifice has no limits. But she didn’t create herself like that. She did not create a heart so tender, gentle, deep and great for love. She was born that way. But even before her birth, the had to prepare it for us, to form… And that was God. Here on earth, no one will love us as much as our mother because no one can give us life as she gave it to us. But no one will love us as God does because God has given us life and a good and loving mother. So who is bigger – the work or the Author? Everything that is beautiful, admirable and charming in the work has from its author. And so all the nobility we find in the mother is only a reflection of the divine Originator. He who created her motherly heart certainly has a more motherly heart, he who has experienced a warm look in her eyes certainly has a warmer look, and he who has modeled her tender motherly love certainly has more tender love.

So how can we love a work more than the Author? How can we love the image more than reality? Let us love the mother, but we must love even more the one who created and gave her to us. Mother gave us everything a man can give, but God also gave us her. Therefore, if we forget God for our parents, if we distance ourselves from him, we are like those who neglect the tree and do not care for it, but simultaneously want to enjoy the fruit. The postman rang the bell. A child’s voice came from behind the door: Who’s there? There’s a postman. I have a registered letter. Are you home alone? Yes, the boy replied. Mom’s in the store. And me and my brother and my sister and my dad – we’re all here alone. The more we know and love the mother, the more we will love God. The more we love God, the more precious and precious our mother will be to us, for we will not find in the whole world any image of God that is more like Him, our good mother. And then we will definitely not be alone…