From the responsorial psalm: “Consider this, you who forget God, lest I rend you and there be no one to rescue you. He that offers praise as a sacrifice glorifies me; and to him that goes the right way I will show the salvation of God.” Remember this, you who never think of God.”
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 8:18-22)
When Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other shore. A scribe approached and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus answered him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.” Another of his disciples said to him, “Lord, let me go first and bury my father.” But Jesus answered him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead.”
In his reply to his disciples, Jesus establishes two key requirements of true devotion to him. He refers to himself as the Son of God, revealing his divine identity as the King of Kings. It is the true God from true God who puts aside material comforts to be in union with the Father and who invites us to do the same. By saying “Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead,” the Incarnate Word rightly places even the most customary obligations beneath the importance of proclaiming the Gospel. For what loving purpose does Jesus ask this of us? As Saint Paul says, “Jesus Christ, though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.” It is Jesus Christ who asks us to follow him, and following, to embrace him wholeheartedly with our words and actions.
God, help me hear the words of Jesus from today’s Gospel. What courage is necessary to go to those places with him where comforts are not a given and where customary ways of doing things are put aside in order to hear your voice and proclaim your kingdom? “I will pasture my sheep,” we read in the Communion antiphon, “I myself will give them rest, says the Lord.” Grant me the strength, Lord, to embrace with my whole heart wherever you invite me to follow. Saint Junipero Serra, pray for us!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.