Jesus said to his apostles: "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; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow
after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever
loses his life for my sake will find it.
"Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives
me receives the one who sent me. Whoever receives a prophet because he is a
prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because
he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward. And 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."
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Reflection:
A poor boy would always pass by a store in their neighborhood
to ask for food that he could bring home to feed his sick father. He would
always do this every day for the simple reason that the store owner was
kindhearted.
After a few days had passed the store owner was wondering
how come the boy was not passing by his store anymore. So he asked the people
around the neighborhood about the boy and he was told that the boy’s family
transferred to the city to stay with a relative.
After twenty years the store owner was now old and sick thus
he already closed the store because no one would tend to it anymore. One day a
young rich man was looking for the man who owned the store. So the young man
was brought to the former store owner.
There he introduced himself to be the boy who would ask for
food that he could bring to his sick father. The eyes of the sick man glowed
and he asked: Why are you here? The rich man said: “I am here to give back your
goodness.” He therefore brought the sick man to the hospital, paid for all of
his hospital bills. When he was discharged he invited the old man to stay with
him for good.
In the gospel for this Sunday, Jesus talks about giving back
to those who do good to his followers. What does this mean? This simply means
that whatever good that we do to those who follow Jesus we will receive back a
hundredfold.
Of course we all know that Jesus doesn’t want us to limit
our acts of goodness to His followers only. Jesus wants us to do good to anyone
who is in need: To the poor loitering in the street, to the beggar asking for alms. To a relative who doesn't ask for help yet we know deep in our hearts that he/she is in need of our help and the like. We do good not because we want something in return someday.
We do good for the simple reason that we simply want to obey Jesus.
When was the last time you did good to somebody in need? –
Marino J. Dasmarinas
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