Matthew 8:18-22

Genesis 18:16-33

Psalm 103:1b-2, 3-4, 8-9, 10-11

Matthew 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.”

Opening Prayer: Lord God, I promise today to heed your call and follow your Son. I cannot do it alone and need the gift of your grace. Your grace, granted through your Son and Spirit, moves me to respond in faith to you and empowers me to do the good works that lead to eternal life.

Encountering the Word of God

1. Set Apart: When the scribe proclaims his willingness to follow Jesus, Jesus invites him to reflect on whether or not he is ready for the lifestyle change. The scribe is enthusiastic, but probably is not ready. By contrast, the second man, one of Jesus’ disciples, indicates the opposite – he is called but wants to procrastinate. When Jesus’ disciple says, “Lord, let me go first and bury my father,” he is using a Hebrew idiom. It could mean either, “I can’t go right now because I need to take care of the house until my father, who is old, passes,” or that he needs to wait until he can rebury his father’s bones one year after his father’s death. “In either case, the man is postponing his commitment to Christ for a long time. Jesus challenges him not to put off discipleship: let the dead bury their dead. In other words, let the spiritually dead – those who are not willing to follow Christ – take care of the son’s responsibilities at home. That only the high priest and a group of consecrated Jews known as Nazarites were exempt from the obligation to bury their parents (Leviticus 21:11; Numbers 6:6-7) indicates the extraordinary importance of Christ’s call to discipleship. He summons his followers to be set apart in a radical way to serve in God’s kingdom” (Mitch and Sri, The Gospel of Matthew, 130). 

2. Walking with the Lord: In the First Reading, Abraham is on a journey with the Lord God and two angelic beings. The four of them set out to look upon the wicked city of Sodom. The Lord is presented anthropomorphically as musing and reflecting upon what should be done: Should he reveal to Abraham or hide what he is about to do to the city? We know that God’s knowledge is eternal and unchanging. God does not have to weigh positives and negatives and hope for the best. God knows what will happen and what he will reveal to us. What the author of Genesis captures is God’s care and concern for Abraham and how Abraham will react to the knowledge that the city will be destroyed. God has promised that Abraham and his line will unleash a universal blessing upon all the families of the earth. What the passage tells us is that the Lord God and Abraham are walking together and that both have merciful hearts. Yes, judgment will come upon the wicked city of Sodom, but Lot, Abraham’s nephew, and some of his family will be saved. One day, the righteous one and the descendant of Abraham, Jesus Christ, will offer salvation to all humanity and intercede for us at the Father’s right hand.

3. Abraham’s Priestly Intercession: When Abraham looks at the city, he has compassion and mercy upon it. He asks God if he will “sweep away the innocent with the guilty.” Abraham acts as a priest as he intercedes for the people of the city. “Abraham intercedes for Sodom by bargaining with the Lord. The dialogue centers on the character of God, whose justice overlooks neither righteousness nor wickedness and whose mercy is willing to spare the wicked from mass destruction for the sake of the righteous. These themes play out in the following episode, when divine justice rains down upon Sodom (19:24) and divine mercy spares both Lot (19:16) and the city to which he flees (19:21-22)” (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, 81).

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, I will follow you. I have heard your call to be your disciple, to renounce the things of this passing world, and to identify myself with you on the way to the Cross. Grant me your grace so that I may have the strength to carry my cross today.

Living the Word of God: How have I interceded for my family this past week, this past month, and this past year? Do I have a specific request for each person? Do I always ask everything according to the Father’s will, in the name of Jesus, and with the guidance of the Spirit?