Anyone who prefers father or mother to me is not worthy of me. Anyone who prefers son or daughter to me is not worthy of me. Anyone who does not take his cross and follow in my footsteps is not worthy of me. (Mt. 10:37–38, Jerusalem Bible)
Today’s Gospel passage begins with the conditions of being worthy of Jesus. It is actually the ending of a long set of instructions for the apostles who were being sent to preach the kingdom. Having told the apostles the manner of which they are to preach, Jesus ends with a reminder that by accepting the mission of preaching, the apostles assent to renouncing everything for Jesus and that the recipients of the preaching would be blessed.
Jesus is not telling us to reject father or mother, son or daughter in favour of Himself. Rather, in the mission of preaching, we need to get our priorities right. If we accept the mission of preaching, then preaching the word should take priority, even to that which is closest to our hearts as human beings. When we consider our general vocation as Christians, and personal vocations as priest, parents, sons or daughters, we need to understand the priorities we have to adhere to. For example, a Christian parent’s vocation is the bringing up of the children as Christians. This means that the child’s welfare has priority. At any one point of time, there must be clear priorities. Toddlers are brought to church to help them understand the importance of Sunday worship. So, the child should be taught to prefer coming to Church on Sunday rather than spend his or her time watching cartoons at home. Once in Church, the child should be taught to prefer focussing on worship in community than on other activities. This is easier said than done. When a two year old is hungry at the time of Mass and wants to be fed, does feeding him or her in the church help him or her make the proper preference? It is probable that feeding him or her in church gives the impression that proper worship is not as important as eating. Bringing him or her out to the proper place to be fed would show that the church is a sacred place where eating is not the respectful thing to do. Yes, the two year old won’t understand the difference. However, the impression given is that if he or she prefers to be fed, he or she should learn to prefer to move out of the sacred space. In this way he or she respects the sacred space and the community who is worshipping in there. What about the parent fulfilling his or her obligation as a Catholic? I can only reply with another question: Is fulfilling the personal Christian obligation preferable to living out the vocation as a Christian parent that one has assented to?
The inconveniences that Christian parents have to bear can be considered the taking of one’s cross and following Jesus’s footsteps. How often have I heard parents lamenting that with their child arriving at the terrible twos and threes, they had to dispense with the privilege of worshipping God on Sundays as one family? How often have I heard of that one child who played in the pews at Mass and disrupted the prayerful ambience the worship space should have?
Anyone who welcomes a prophet because he is a prophet will have a prophet's reward; … (Mt. 10:41, Jerusalem Bible)
What about the recipients of the message? When we encounter a person, do we consider that person a blessing? Usually when we get a positive experience from it, we think of it as a blessing. What about when it was a negative experience? Can we not think of it as a blessing from God as well? A prophet is called by God to be His mouthpiece. When God sends someone to us, that person may not even be aware of it. If we welcome that person as sent by God, and see his actions and words as a message from God, we are actually welcoming that person as a prophet because he is a prophet. The prophet who obeys God and transmits God’s message will be in a right relationship with God. That result is the prophet’s reward. When we receive the message of God and act properly on it, it will also result in a right relationship with God — the same as the prophet’s reward.
Thus, when we consider our general and personal vocations, we will need to consider the priorities at every given time. Fortunately, God will send people to encounter us to give us advice so that we would be able to arrive at the right relationship with Him. Let us be thankful to such a loving God.
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