NO PLACE FOR THE SON OF MAN TO LAY HIS SACRED HEAD

MONDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Amos 2:6-10,13-16; Ps 50:16-23; Mt 8:18-22

The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his Head

It is very intriguing to read that a great crowd of people were following our Lord, and yet he replied to the scribe who came to him to promise his followership that he had no place to lay his head. We can easily surmise that the great crowd means eager friends of Jesus Christ. But that is not the case. Many people follow Jesus Christ for their own needs and desires and do nothing to aid the fulfilment or accomplishment of the mission of the Messiah. Many of us made a commitment to follow Jesus Christ as the scribe in the gospel, who came to him to pledge himself to follow him, but we follow him on our terms instead of his, that is, doing the will of God. Many enter religious life and make a profession of religious vows, but they end up looking after their interests and do not follow the Lord’s will. This is what Jesus expressed in his response to the scribe in the gospel: “One of the scribes then came up and said to him, ‘Master, I will follow you wherever you go.’ Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’

The Son of Man is the Eternal Word of God made man for our salvation. So, the head of the Son of Man is his divinity. Just as foxes have their holes and birds have their nests to rest, the Son of God is on a mission to humanity, he assumed human nature to call us back to faith in the word of God and love for the heavenly Father who sent his Son for our salvation. Thus, the mission of the Son of God is to find fitting souls for the indwelling of the Eternal Word of God. So, the Son of Man is seeking a people who would constitute a worthy Temple for his Godhead. From this understanding, the crowd following Jesus Christ without commitment to his word does not serve the purpose of his mission. This is the cause of God’s decree to punish Israel as given by prophet Amos in the first reading. They bear the name Israelites without living out their commitment to God. Not mindful of the covenant they made with Yahweh God of Israel, they prostrate themselves at every height and worship other gods, they commit the same crimes for which Yahweh dispossessed the former inhabitants of the Land. “It was I who brought you out of the land of Egypt and for forty years led you through the wilderness to take possession of the Amorite’s country.”

The same goes for many of us who profess faith in Jesus Christ and answer Christians but without commitment to the word of God. We go to Church, say many prayers, and do other devout activities to make God do our desires and not to do God’s will. This is why Jesus found no place to lay his sacred Head. Many of us are not willing to do the will of God as revealed in his word. We define the Christianity we want to practice and do not follow Jesus Christ wholeheartedly. God raises a question on this false religion through the Psalmist. “How can you recite my commandments and take my covenant on your lips, you who despise my law and throw my words to the winds?” The Church of God is built on those who profess faith in the word of God with their whole hearts and not on those who fill the Church on Sundays. Let our going to Church be an indication of our sincere desire to hear the word of God, seek the will of God, and do it when it is made known to us. When we hear and internalise the word of God in our hearts, we have given a dwelling place to the Son of Man. The urgent need for such hearts is expressed by the Lord himself when he responded to the one who excused himself to bury his father. “Another man, one of his disciples, said to him, ‘Sir, let me go and bury my father first.’ But Jesus replied, ‘Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their dead.’” The word of God is our greatest treasure, for to house him in our hearts is to contain God.

Let us pray: Grant us, Lord, to understand that the mission of your Son is to find a fitting dwelling place in our hearts for his sacred divinity, so that we may open our hearts to your word daily to contemplate and adore your divine presence in us.