This week we continue reading from Matthew’s mission discourse, where Jesus gives a series of instructions to his disciples about how they are to conceive and conduct their mission. In other words, what they are to expect when they go out into the world. Jesus tells his disciples something about losing and finding; giving and receiving.  

In the first reading, the unnamed woman received her reward in welcoming Elisha. She showed incredible hospitality to a stranger, who happened to regularly pass her way. In return for her kindness, Elisha told her “This time next year you will hold a son in your arms.” It is a fascinating story.  However, if we look deeper, we realise that the key to this story lies, not in the woman’s kindness, nor Elisha’s thoughtfulness, it is actually her recognition of the godliness in him that makes all the difference.  “Look, I am sure the man who is constantly passing our way must be a holy man of God,” she said to her husband.  This moved her to even build a room in her house, so that he can rest when he journeys through the area. Simply incredible!  

We can hear the echo of this story in Jesus’ words: “Anyone who welcomes a prophet will have a prophet’s reward; and anyone who welcomes a holy man will have a holy man’s reward.”  Jesus reflects on the fundamental truth, that the measure one gives is the measure one receives.  No more, no less.  This is not to say that we worry about what we receive back when we give.  Most of us don’t expect anything in return when we give.  And yet, we do receive a gift of blessing that is beyond any measure whenever we go out of our way to give something of ourselves to others.  The gift we receive is often not visible to the eyes, but very much recognised by the soul.  It is the gift of joy, peace and happiness that make our lives blossom.  Somehow, in giving away something of ourselves we fulfil what is missing within us.  There is an innate need to be generous, because it does as much for the giver as it does for the receiver.  

Jesus then takes the concept of giving a step further.  He says that not only does God have a preferential love for the poor, the sick and the stranger, but God is in the poor, the sick and the stranger.  This can make Jesus sound like a good salesman – look after the sick, be generous with the poor, welcome the stranger because not only is it a good thing to do, but God is also present in them, so make sure you do it.  But, if we go back to the story of the woman in the first reading, we see that, once again, the key to reading this narrative lies in our ability to recognise the godliness in people and the world around us.  Jesus’ exhortation to give will not do us good until we firmly believe that in giving that we receive, in losing ourselves for others that we truly find ourselves.  Our task, it seems, is not to begin building a room for someone, but to first recognise the godliness in every man and woman that walks this earth, to begin to recognise God in the air, in every person we encounter, and in the sorrow of our lives.  Songwriter Paul Simon in his “Seven Psalms”, writes: 

The Lord is my engineer 

The Lord is the earth I ride on 

The Lord is the face in the atmosphere 

The path I slip and I slide on

The Incarnation means that God has entered the world and left his permanent mark on it.  St Paul reminds us: it is no longer us that live but Christ who lives in us.  Christ is incarnated in all of creation, in every person on the planet, in the air that we breathe, in the freezing wind of winter.  Can we, like the woman in the first reading, recognise the Christ in the people and events that are passing our way this week?  

By Deacon Tien Tran