TWENTY-NINTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
18 OCTOBER 2015
An
avowed atheist visiting Saint Pius would feel vindicated by the first reading. Isaiah
the prophet announced that the Lord was pleased to crush his faithful servant
in infirmity. The atheist’s response
would be something like: “See, you crazy
people worship a God who acts more like Darth Vader hammering Luke Skywalker
with a light saber than a loving Father who loves and cares for each
person!” We might also wonder what
Isaiah is talking about!
To
understand, we need to listen to the other two assigned readings for this
Sunday. Through the Scriptures, the Lord
is trying to help us to understand the nature of true greatness. The Letter to the Hebrews reminds us that God
so loved the world that he emptied himself and took on our human form. The Letter recalls the image of the high
priest who entered the Holy of Holies in the ancient Temple in Jerusalem each
year on the Day of Atonement. Our high
priest, Jesus Christ, offered the perfect sacrifice to atone for the sins of
humanity. He offered himself on the
cross, trusting that his loving Father would accept his sacrifice, raise him
from the dead, and ascend him to the heavens, the eternal Holy of Holies. Our high priest knows the ways in which life
continually crushes us, because he shares the weakness of our human condition.
In the
Gospel, Jesus is trying to explain this concept of greatness to his
disciples. For the third time, he says that
he will conquer the power of sin and death through his sacrifice on the
cross. He has been trying to teach that
his true greatness will come from suffering and death. But, they are not listening. Instead, James and John want to be named
Monsignors and wear their fancy cassocks with cool magenta buttons and sit on
either side of the great presider’s chair of Jesus in the Kingdom of God. And the other ten don’t get it either. They are angry, because James and John beat
them in seeking their share of power, honor, wealth, and pleasure.
Jesus is
very patient. He asks if they can drink
the cup that he will drink. Even though they
do not understand that this cup is the cup of suffering, they agree. He asks if they can be baptized. Even though they do not understand that this
is a baptism in the floodwaters of pain, torture, and death, they agree
again. He tries to explain again that
true greatness comes not from the perks of power and control over the lives of
other people, but from humble service. Just
as a person would pay a financial ransom to free a slave, Jesus will pay the
ransom of his own life to free us from our slavery to sin and death.
The
disciples will eventually learn this lesson after the death and resurrection of
Jesus Christ. Fourteen years after this
exchange, Herod would behead James, who would become the head of the Church of
Jerusalem, just as he had beheaded John the Baptist. The disciples will learn from the risen Lord
the meaning of true greatness. They
would see their humble service cause the infant church to grow and expand
beyond their wildest dreams.
The Lord is
teaching us the meaning of true greatness.
Being great does not involve piling up wealth, titles, privileges, and
pleasure. Even though these things are
not bad in themselves, we can use them in selfish ways. Rather, the Lord is calling us to use them in
service of other people. When a gunman murdered nine people at Emmanuel African
Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston earlier this year, the members looked
at the painful way in which the Lord seemed to be crushing them in their
infirmity. Instead of realizing the
gunman’s vision of creating a race riot, they publicly forgave him and prayed
that God would have mercy on him. Their
example displayed extraordinary humble service that can inspire and motivate us
to understand what it means to be great.
Our greatness comes from humble service to our brothers and sisters, not
from acquiring wealth, titles, privileges, and pleasure for ourselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment