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As we gather for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, the Church places before us profound themes of hospitality, dying to self, and radical discipleship. These readings challenge us to prioritize Christ above all and to live as people who have died to sin and now live for God.
The Readings
In the First Reading (2 Kings 4:8-11, 14-16a), a woman of Shunem shows generous hospitality to the prophet Elisha, preparing a room for him and receiving God’s blessing in return—a promised son. This reminds us that welcoming God’s servants (and ultimately Christ Himself) opens us to divine generosity.
The Responsorial Psalm (Ps 89:2-3, 16-17, 18-19) sings of God’s faithful love and the joy of those who walk in His light: “Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.”
In the Second Reading (Romans 6:3-4, 8-11), St. Paul proclaims the power of Baptism: “Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.” We have died with Christ to sin; we must now consider ourselves “dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.”
The Gospel (Matthew 10:37-42) contains Jesus’ demanding call to discipleship: “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.” Jesus also promises reward for simple acts of hospitality and charity done in His name—even giving a cup of cold water to one of His little ones.
Connecting to Our Times: Love, Truth, and the Call to Repentance
On this very Sunday, June 28, 2026, New York City hosts its annual Pride March—a large public celebration of LGBTQ+ identities and lifestyles. In a culture that often equates affirmation with love and views any moral disagreement as hatred, the Gospel invites us to a higher, more demanding charity.
The Church has always taught: hate the sin, but love the sinner. This is not a slogan of rejection but the very pattern of Christ’s own ministry. Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners, yet He called them to repentance and conversion: “Go and sin no more.” True love does not leave people in slavery to sin; it calls them into the freedom of living according to God’s design for human sexuality and the human person—male and female, in complementarity, ordered toward the goods of marriage and family as revealed in Scripture and Tradition.
St. Paul’s words today are especially pointed: we have died to sin. Sexual immorality, including acts outside of marriage between one man and one woman, is among the sins to which the baptized must die. This call is not aimed only at those marching in Pride events; it is universal. Every one of us has areas of attachment, selfishness, or disordered desire where we must take up the cross, die to self, and follow Jesus. The Gospel’s standard is radical: Christ must come first—even before family, identity, or cultural approval.
Hospitality and welcome remain essential. We are called to treat every person with dignity, respect, and concrete charity, just as the Shunemite woman welcomed Elisha. But genuine hospitality includes speaking the truth in love. We are to invite all—especially those caught in patterns contrary to God’s will—to repent, amend their lives, and enter more fully into the joy of new life in Christ. The promise of the Gospel is not loss but gain: “Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
May we, as baptized Christians, live boldly in this “newness of life.” Let our parishes and homes be places of radical welcome to every sinner (which includes all of us), while remaining clear about the demands of discipleship. In a world that celebrates autonomy and self-definition, we proclaim that true freedom and identity are found only in losing ourselves in Jesus Christ.
Lord, help us to love as You love—without compromise on truth, yet with mercy that calls every heart to conversion. Amen.
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