Let us strive so as not to lose our reward.

Today’s Gospel passage is the conclusion of Jesus’ second discourse in the Gospel of Matthew, portions of which we heard the last two Sundays. The relevance of today’s section is quite significant.

In the first part of today’s section, Jesus asserts His unique condition. He places Himself above the most fundamental duties of the natural realm. He must be “loved more” than (that is, preferred to) our own life and the lives of our closest relatives, including those who gave us our life.

In 1993, Rabbi Jacob Neusner published a book titled A Rabbi Talk with Jesus. Neusner imagined a conversation with Jesus, concluding that he could not follow Him because Jesus dared to somehow add things to the Torah or to correct it (see Matthew 5), thereby placing himself as legislator above Moses. In his 2007 book Jesus of Nazareth, Ratzinger dedicated a lengthy analysis to Neusner’s arguments. He thanked the Rabbi for exposing the true “scandal” of Jesus’s divinity and the profound choice the Gospel presents, allowing Christians to better understand their own faith. Today’s first part of the Gospel passage is a reminder of what Jesus already did in the first sermon (Matthew 5-7).

The second part of today’s passage indicates the authority invested in the apostles to represent Jesus. The Greek term apóstolos (from the verb apostéllo, “to send”) designates the sent one. The Jewish background of the term has led commentators to relate the nature of apostleship with an institution known as shaliach (from the Hebrew verb shalach, “to send”). A rabbinic saying reflects the understanding of it: “the shaliach of a man is like the man himself.” It is a foundational concept in Jewish law (halakha) regarding agency. It means an authorized representative legally embodies the person who sent him. The agent carries the sender’s full legal authority. Any action taken by the shaliach (“emissary”) is treated as if the principal did it himself, so that the sender is fully responsible for the agent’s actions. We see the apostles assuming their responsibility in the Book of Acts (on the Sixth Sunday of Easter we heard that, after Philip preached in Samaria, the apostles sent Peter and John, who went down and prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit, see Acts 8:14-16). Acts 19:13-15 mentions a bizarre event that gives further input into the nature of the apostles’ mission: “some itinerant Jewish exorcists tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those with evil spirits, saying, ‘I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.’ When the seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish high priest, tried to do this, the evil spirit said to them in reply, ‘Jesus I recognize, Paul I know, but who are you?’”

The following part of today’s gospel, by bringing up analogous instances, provides further input into the importance of truly recognizing the nature of the apostles’ ministry and their official representation. The apostles’ role under this aspect has come to be called the hierarchical dimension of the Church. The term hierarchy comes from two Greek terms: hierón, “sacred,” and arché, “principle/origin.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church reflects this by saying: “Christ is himself the source of ministry in the Church” (874). But in order to avoid a distorted understanding of this reality, the Catechism adds right away: “Intrinsically linked to the sacramental nature of ecclesial ministry is its character as service. Entirely dependent on Christ who gives mission and authority, ministers are truly ‘slaves of Christ,’ in the image of him who freely took ‘the form of a slave’ for us. Because the word and grace of which they are ministers are not their own, but are given to them by Christ for the sake of others, they must freely become the slaves of all” (876).

It is a historical fact that, before the Bible existed as we have it today, the Church’s hierarchy was established. As a matter of fact, we would not even have a Bible if the hierarchy had not intervened to establish the canon, which is the list of books that are to be accepted as inspired by the Holy Spirit and, therefore, binding for the faith (the Greek term kánon means “rule”; St. Irenaeus of Lyon, martyred around 202, established the rule of faith as a summary of the core apostolic teachings that helped define the Biblical Canon to combat Gnosticism). Jesus Himself did not write any book, but under His authority, He entrusted to His Church the propagation of His teaching (remember Mt 28, read in the solemnity of the Ascension), to “hand on the Catholic and Apostolic faith” (Eucharistic Prayer I).

Let us strive so as not to lose our reward.

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