Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
“Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”
When we hear these words and the similar ones in our Gospel today, our first mental inclination looks to our poor ability to comply: how could I possibly do this?
Yes, “poor ability” is correct. The place of our poverty is not. If only we are willing to patiently hear it and live from it, the truth of our situation is that we are rich – very rich! Listen to it in our second reading today:
Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.
Notice St. Paul’s emphasis: “Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.” It is by the glory of the Father, that is, God’s grace at work in our lives, that we can take up our cross – whatever it may be – and follow Christ into “newness of life.”
Now we can look differently at ourselves. We turn our view to God’s gaze on us and we hear him say, ‘I’m looking at you with love. I created you out of love. You are not made for just the short time of your life on earth but for eternal happiness with me. Do you want that? Are you willing to concede your inability to attain it by yourself? You are even unable to imagine it! Yes, in yourself you are very poor; in my Son you are very rich!’
The Shunamite woman in today’s first reading was “a woman of influence.” But her real power, if we can call it that, was in her humanity and her humility to recognize a holy man when she saw one! She recognized real influence when she saw it.
At the end of the letter from St. Paul today, we hear this: “you too must think of yourselves as dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.” The thinking here means contemplation. It’s not a ‘dirty word’ but is simply patient, prayerful pondering about whom we have become by our Baptism into Christ. The crucial factor in this pondering or contemplation faces us in this question, ‘Can I learn to experience silence within me?’
“Be still and know that I am God!”
Reflection by Fr. Xavier Nacke, OSB
Posted in Articles for Ordinary Time, Daily Reflections