Reflecting on today’s Gospel passage from Matthew 10:37-42 on the “conditions of discipleship” reminded me of one great man who seeks persistently in his life, his love and the object of it; he asked “What did I love? Who was the beloved object? (MR I, 2)

On Matthew 10:37 “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”  The text invited us to take a look on who is the center of our lives? …the one who satiates and satisfies our being; our beloved, our only love and the object of our being.  And as we enter to our core, it may lead us to a greater discovery of the centrality of the Church – God and neighbors in our lives; analogous to the experience of this great man, Bl. Francisco Palau in his search for his beloved.  He says “Oh, Holy Church my beloved! You are the object of my love!” “I have found you now; you know that: the least I can offer you is my life, to correspond with your love” (MR III.1, 2). That profound experience of the Church was expressed concretely in the incarnation of the love of God and love of neighbors with all its consequences.

In the Gospel of Matthew 10:38 “Whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me” tells us that the cross is part of the following of Christ.  Oftentimes we associated the cross to pain, suffering and death.  And we hardly discover that in the cross embedded the immense love of God for us, life and salvation.  This verse Mt. 10:37 invite us to reflect on how we take up our daily crosses and how we are allowing it to shape us in our following of Christ.

“Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Mt. 10:39). The genuine expression of our profound experience of God is manifested in the total giving of oneself; a love that leads to an apostolic commitment.  With a gaze of the heart on the concrete faces of our brothers and sisters, especially on the restoration and liberation of the wounded Body of Christ.  This text challenges us not only to go beyond ourselves but to lose it “for whoever loses his life for my sake will find it,” because only then, we find the meaning and the essence of our existence.  Bl. Francisco Palau would say “…the love of God and neighbors completes the work of God in man (C38, 4).

CMT – ASIA