30 June 2025 – Monday of the 13th week of Ordinary Time
HOMILY
Matthew places this encounter between Jesus and two people who want to follow him in the midst of a long series of healings and other events whose context is not specified, but which seem to take place at the beginning of His public life. Luke's Gospel places the same encounter during Jesus' final journey to Jerusalem, where He will be put to death. Jesus' call, ‘Follow me,’ then takes on a whole new meaning.
In Matthew's Gospel, which we have just read, Jesus is on the road—probably still in the land of the Samaritans—when two people who want to follow Him approach Him. These people are not named, as are normally the disciples whom Jesus calls. They are therefore typical figures. They represent each one of us, according to the circumstances of our lives.
To the first, who says, ‘Master, I will follow you wherever you go,’ Jesus does not respond with something like, ‘Well done, welcome to my group!’ He does not even ask him a single question. He simply outlines the demands of what he wants to undertake, describing what He Himself experiences: "Foxes have dens and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man
has nowhere to lay His head." ‘ To the other who says to Him, ‘Lord, let me first go and bury my father,’ He replies, ‘Follow Me, and let the dead bury their dead.
Each of us has received a personal call. Our journey will normally be a mixture of successes and failures, personal satisfactions and disappointments. We will grow towards the fullness of Life through this journey, insofar as, like Jesus on His way to Jerusalem, our gaze and our face are decidedly and irrevocably turned towards the goal, come what may.
Armand VEILLEUX