The prescribed 1st reading for today, in accordance with the US Council of Catholic Bishops, is from the Book of Wisdom 2:12, 17-20. It’s like listening at the door to the elders, chief priests and scribes plotting the torture and death of Jesus. We are invited in the liturgy to see this as a prophetic passage of the Lord’s Passion. It is dark, and mean, and mocking. The gist of it is their anger and contempt of Jesus’ claim to be the One sent by God, the Son of God and his taking them to task for breaking the laws of Moses and betraying their training as leaders and teachers. They mockingly refer to him as “the Just One” and contrive cruel humiliating torments, torture and, ultimately, a shameful death. Foreshadowing of how they will mock him as he hangs on the cross: “For if the Just One be the Son of God, He will…deliver Him…” (cf Matthew 27:41-43)
The first part of the Gospel is not written in our CLOTW books, probably because it ties in directly with the darker aspect of the first reading which is the first of two messages of the Gospel this Sunday:
Jesus and his disciples left from there and began a journey through Galilee,
but he did not wish anyone to know about it.
He was teaching his disciples and telling them,
"The Son of Man is to be handed over to men
and they will kill him,
and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise."
But they did not understand the saying,
and they were afraid to question him. Mark 9:30-32
The Psalm, 54: The Lord Upholds My Life, completes this first message in a prayer to God to uphold a life threatened by the haughty men.
On the lighter side Jesus teaches the apostles about what makes a great disciple. After Jesus tells his apostles that he will be killed and on the third day rise again they become confused and afraid to ask questions about this statement, however they get into a bit of a disagreement over who will take over and “lead” them after Jesus is dead. Once again, our beloved Church fathers are not getting it. It’s, of course, easy for us looking on from the future to perceive them as somewhat dim witted at times. Jesus occasionally becomes seriously exasperated by them. But in truth they are no more selfish, no more weak willed, no more thoughtless than WE. So Jesus must teach them what it means to be the BEST disciple of Christ Jesus. If you want to be the most important, you have to treat everyone else as more important than yourself; you must serve all other people.
Q: How do we place ourselves in relation to others? Do we assume a higher place, or are we humble and think of others first? Do we treat others as more important than ourselves, or less? Do we argue until we win even though the argument is over something trivial? Do we, as James says in the 2nd reading, have fights and arguments because we don’t get what we want, or we’re jealous? Do we ask for what we want because we just want to be selfish? Do we allow our feelings of anger, or jealousy to make us act badly? It is ok to have feelings, but James is warning us about how we act when we have those feelings. James says, “Give up these evil ways. Stay near to God and God will stay near to you.” Remember how Jesus washed the feet of his disciples before the Last Supper? Jesus said, “If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.” Jesus did not come to BE served, but TO serve. He gave us many examples of how to behave in the right way. By doing as Jesus showed us by example we stay close to God, who will stay close to us.
Now, the second part of his message on this point involves a child that he places among them. Jesus puts his arms around the child and says, “Those who accept a little child like this because of me are also accepting me. And those who accept me are really accepting the One who sent me.” Is it just me, or does this bring to your mind also Baptism of infants? And, coincidentally, we have Baptisms at the 9am mass this weekend. We are ALL accepting those little ones into the family of Christ in the Baptism and we ALL profess our faith and we ALL promise to raise that child in the Catholic faith, to pray for that child and to uphold his life. We do this because of Jesus. Would you baptize a child into a faith you do not believe?
The Gospel of the Lord provides us a framework for our lives and gives our lives a place and purpose in the grand story. It is we who desire to be better persons, it is God who has provided a means for us to overcome our inherent weakness and sinfulness and fulfill His great purpose for us so that we can one day stand in His presence. That way is Jesus. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.
This week’s Psalm is
Psalm 54: The Lord Upholds My Life
Have a blessed week!