Receiving

Reflection for June 28, 2026 – The Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus reminds his disciples of the personal sacrifice it takes to follow His teachings but also of the great rewards that come with doing so.  Find Today’s Reading Here

I receive a lot of junk mail. I’m on a bunch of people’s asking-for-money lists, and so were the people who owned this house before me, and when you put it all together, it results in quite the pile of paper accumulating on my counter.

I leave it there because, while I have received this mail, I don’t want to receive it. Do you see the difference? To really receive someone or something, you have to look at it, assess it, make space for it. Accept it. Decide it will have a place in your home or your life or whatever, and give it that place.

It’s what the righteous woman did with Elisha. She received him. She had a room all ready, waiting for him, even when he wasn’t there.

But I refuse to receive the junk mail. I don’t have space for it, in my head or on my counter, so after a day or two, I just throw it away without looking through it.

“Whoever receives me receives the one who sent me,” Jesus tells us in the Gospel of Matthew.

But what does that mean, exactly?

It’s easy to receive Jesus, or at least to receive the Jesus presented to us by modern imagination — that laidback hippie who lets anyone sit at his table, no questions asked. But it’s harder to receive the Christ, God the Son, who is consubstantial with God the Father who sent him.

Ah, yes, God the Father — maybe you’ve heard of Him? He’s the one from the Old Testament who says and does a bunch of things that make modern people uncomfortable.

That’s a little more of a challenge, isn’t it? Takes a little bit more thought. A little more assessment. A little more making-space.

Can we do it? Well, we have to find a way. Because for the record, laidback hippie Jesus doesn’t exist. And Old Testament God makes a lot of sense, if you give Him a little thought. If you make a little space.

So make the space. Receive.

©LPi