Loving into Eternal Life 13th Sunday Year A
2 Kings 4:8-11, 14-16a; Romans 6:3-4, 8-11; Matthew 10:37-42
In the Gospel passage for today, Jesus says, “whoever does not take up his cross
and follow after me is not worthy of me.” These words indicate that Jesus did not carry his cross and die on the cross so that we do not have to.
Rather, Jesus took up his cross, carried his cross, and died on the cross so that we can take up our crosses with Jesus, carry our crosses with Jesus, and die on our unique crosses with Jesus, and then with, in, and through Jesus rise with Jesus into eternal life, where “eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him”. (1 Corinthians 2:9)
Jesus continues by teaching, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” This verse is related to love for Jesus prioritized love of us over death since Jesus, out of his infinite love for us, suffered and died on the cross for us. Similarly, if we, out of love for Jesus and in Jesus’ love, value our love of Jesus and our love of what is best and holy for our brothers and sisters over our own lives, we may lose our physical lives but will find eternal life. As Benedict XVI concisely explained:
Only where someone values love more highly than life, that is, only where someone is ready to put life second to love, for the sake of love, can love be stronger and more than death. If it is to be more than death, it must first be more than mere life. But if it could be this, not just in intention but in reality, then that would mean at the same time that the power of love had risen superior to the power of the merely biological and taken it into its service.[1]
The love that prioritizes what is best and holy of another over our own lives is not mere inward curved self-love but rather is a love that is an outward, curved love of others that, of course, also includes love of self. “World history” states Benedict XVI “is a struggle between two kinds of love: self-love to the point of hatred for God, and love of God to the point of self-renunciation.”[2]
When we love God to the point of self-renunciation, which if true, necessarily includes love of our brothers and sisters, we bear within ourselves the seeds of immortality that when we die will carry us into eternal life, into heaven, for as Benedict XVI writes, “love is the foundation of immortality, and immortality proceeds from love alone.” [3]
Encouraging us to love as Jesus loves, Pope Leo XIV echoes Jesus’ two great commandments: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself’ (Lk 10:27; cf. Deut 6:5; Lev 19:18). When we do these two things, we respond to the Father’s love. God’s will is the law of life that the Father himself was the first to follow, by loving us unconditionally in his Son, Jesus.”[4] – May God Bless You All – Father Peter
[1] Joseph Ratzinger, Introduction to Christianity (Revised Edition), trans. J.R. Foster (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004), 304.
[2] Benedict XVI, Day by Day with Pope Benedict XVI, ed. Peter John Cameron (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2006), 166.
[3] Joseph Ratzinger, Introduction to Christianity (Revised Edition), trans. J.R. Foster (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004), 305-306.
[4] Leo XIV, “Angelus, Sunday, 13 July 2025,” vatican.va, https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/angelus/2025/documents/20250713-angelus.html.
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