Today's Readings.


Genesis 21:8-21
Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17
Romans 6:1b-11
Matthew 10:24-39



The O.T. reading and the Psalm refer to the plight of Hagar and Ishmael, her son by Abraham; God protects those shunned or persecuted by others.

The Epistle speaks to the totality of the union of us in Christ. Jesus was made human, suffered in his human life, and we are bonded to him in that common suffering. Yet our souls are also bonded to him in his defeat of death by resurrection.

In the Gospel Jesus asks the most difficult task of us - displacing the nexus of our lives from our loved ones on Earth to him. This is not abandonment or disowning those around us, rather it is transforming our connections to our loved ones to pass through Christ. As Abraham trusted in God to provide for Ishmael, so we must trust in Christ to provide the ultimate and permanent bond between human beings.