For Jesus, the issue is not “what do you get out of it?” The issue is what are you giving into it.

THIRTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – A

2 Kings 4:8-11, 14-16a

Romans 6:3-4, 8-11

Matthew 10:37-42

In the play Man of La Mancha Aldonza confronts Sancho Panza about why he is helping Don Quixote as he lurches from one disaster to another. What do you get out of it? she asks. While he mumbles an answer she confronts him: You’ve gotten nothing. Why do you do it? He answers, quite simply, “I like him. I really like him.” How would you respond if you were similarly confronted about why you come to Church; about why you are a Catholic? What do your finances get because you are a believer? Do you as a believer get freedom your illnesses and ailments? Do you get to live as you want without interference from outsiders? Do you get respect from others? After we stumble around with our answer to these challenges our hypothetical Aldonza might say to us: “You’ve gotten nothing.”

However, if we brought those challenges to Jesus he would say that we are asking the wrong question. The issue is not “what do you get out of it?” The issue is what are you giving into it. Not what you get but what you give matters most. “Whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because the little one is a disciple— amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.” Remember the Lord’s prayer? Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those…. We have to give in order to get. If we start off asking “what am I getting” we go in the wrong direction. By starting off with what can I give we are following the example of Jesus. St. Paul says that Jesus emptied himself of divinity in order to share life with us as a human being. As followers of Jesus we empty ourselves, or as he puts it in the gospel for today: we must deny ourselves and take up our cross if we are to receive a worthy life. Experience teaches us the wisdom of focusing on giving. Married couples, or anyone in a relationship, has to ask first what am I giving to this relationship for it to succeed. Parents are always in the position of giving of themselves without getting a return. And, quite frankly Church, if people come to Church and say “do me” without first giving of themselves to this community you are bound to be disappointed. Jesus promises a hundred-fold so the more we give, the bigger the multiplier.

There is one particular kind of giving that we all have to do that St. Paul talks about in the epistle for today: namely, death. It is a death when we give ourselves over completely to God. But we get to practice, if you were, that giving over according to the apostle at our baptism.  We who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. What was the death of Jesus like so that we can participate in? First of all, Jesus did not go rushing into death. He lived his life fully every day even knowing death was before him. He even prayed that God might delay his death in Gethsemane. “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.” And when death did come he was saddened. “My God, why have you abandoned me?” But through it all he was giving himself over to the one whom he trusted with his life. “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” And, according to St. John, at the moment of death his body spilled blood and water, symbolizing that even in death Jesus is giving new life. Since we have been baptized into the death of Jesus we share with him that same ability to live until we die, to give ourselves over at the moment of death to the God who loves us, and to leave behind a legacy which testifies to the presence of God in our lives. Think of the family members or friends who have left you but who, by the quality of their lives and the integrity of their deaths continue to give you hope and peace. Think of parishioners who have gone ahead of us but continue to inspire us: Jim Sherman, Ginny Picken, Shirley Barker, Joe Cunningham, Darren Haley to name just a few. They gave during their lives and continue to give to us. Being baptized into the death of Jesus makes giving ourselves over to death when our time times not so much a tragedy as an opportunity to surrender more fully into the loving embrace of God.

But why? Why in a world where everyone is looking out for number one should we focus on giving instead of getting? Let’s go back to Sancho Panza. “I like him. I really like him.” In other words, Sancho gave of himself to Don Quixote because they had a relationship. Church, the reason we listen to the words of Jesus, the reason that we follow his teaching, the reason we imitate his example is because of our relationship with him. We like him. We even love him. While the gap of two thousand years can seem daunting, Jesus invites us to have an intimate connection with him as one who loves us. Did you ever hear the song: Oh, how I love Jesus because he first loved me. Old timers will remember the Baltimore Catechism. The first two questions: Who made you? God made me. Why did God make you? God made me to know, love and serve him in this world and to be with him forever in the next. We know Jesus by reading the Bible, meeting him in the Christian community, recognizing his real presence on the altar. We love Jesus by meeting him in prayer and in the faces of the hurting. We serve Jesus by giving of ourselves generously. Whatever we give in faith is like a magic penny. No matter how much or how often we give it away we end up having more. In fact, we end up having more than we ever hoped for.