September 23, 2012 25th
Sunday in Ordinary Time B
Wisdom 2:12, 17-20; James 3:16 –
4:3; Mark 9:30-37
Am I living it the way that I want to? Do I feel satisfied? Do
I feel happy? And most importantly: am I connected with God? Am I
connected not in the sense that I’m doing all the ‘practices’
that I’m suppose to do: Celebrating Mass, receiving the Sacraments
especially Reconciliation, finding time for prayer and the Divine
Office, but am I linked and coupled with God? Am I accepting all
that comes my way and striving to live in love and compassion and joy
with all those in my life? The bottom line is am I living God or
living me? These questions are what the readings are about.The book of Wisdom was written about a hundred years before Jesus came. The author whose name is unknown was a member of the Jewish community at Alexandria in Egypt. His primary purpose was the support and teaching of his fellow Jews when they had encountered suffering and coercion from their neighbors who weren’t really practicing their Jewish faith and were encouraging them to do the same. The author says that it’s a conflict with being an honorable person and the wrongdoing of those straying who were not being faithful to their upbringing. Am I being faithful to the way I was raised? God will take care of me if I am faithful.
James, once again, gets so practical
and concerned with me. Do I let jealousy and my own selfish motives
rule me? Is my life about myself and my own plans and my own
ambition? Do I let these get in the way of God’s plans for me?
Alice Camille in Exploring the Sunday Readings says: “Wise
people don’t seek the spotlight. They know that celebrity and
homage feed the ego without sustaining the spirit. Wise people know
it’s not about them, but about the just cause. So they prefer to
keep the spotlight on that.
The
opposite of wisdom is selfish ambition, jealousy of other’s
achievements, the spirit of conflict, and the ongoing desire to
possess what can never be entirely obtained: more.”
The Epistle of James describes
the problem in brilliant detail. There are two kinds of people:
wise peacemakers and self-seeking conflict junkies. If our focus is
on what we can get in this world, conflict will become our inevitable
environment. So get humble. Take the wisdom road. And be at
peace.”It would have been wonderful if the apostles today had read James’ passage before their embarrassing encounter with Jesus today. Does it really matter who is the greatest? Yet how much that has been imbued in me: the desire to win in games and sports. This is good in a sense but what does that do when I’m leading others? Is it about the good guys and bad guys? How do I treat the ‘bad guys’? Do I treat them with God’s love or with my own putdowns? Jesus today is talking about His own death and suffering and what this means to the apostles and me and everyone. The apostles are concerned with their own competiveness, what’s in it for me. Jesus then seizes this as a teachable moment. AM I LISTENING? He says that those who hold the highest position in the community, in the church, in the home, wherever, must be willing to take the lowest place. He’s saying: ‘If you want to be first, then be last. If you want to be in charge, then serve. When you take in the least, you take in not only Me but My Father.’ Living the Word puts it in this way, “It has proven a hard lesson to learn. Or maybe few of us really want to learn it. When you look at the world, most seem to want to be first, the greatest, and the one with the most and best toys a wielder of power and influence and authority. Choosing to serve the least doesn’t make the top ten on most people’s ‘to do’ list.”
So I reflect by using a wonderful passage from this lesson: ‘Whoever wants to be first must be the last of all and be the servant of all.” Who have been the most important people in your life? Most of them, I dare say, were neither rich nor famous. And even if they were both rich and famous, those were not the things that mattered. I can’t tell you the names of the truly important people in your life but I can tell you what they did. They took care of you when you could not take care of yourself. They taught you to read and write. They spent time with you when you were lonely. They corrected you when you went astray. They encouraged you to follow the right path. The most important people in your life have been those who helped you. Those who helped you be gentle with yourself. In other words, they were your servants.”
And this is all about the ‘crosses that Jesus said we all carry. It takes the sacrifice of my time to be one who serves. It means saying NO to what I want and YES to those who God has placed in my life. Now I must become like Christ if I am to understand the cross. So I ask myself:
- Jesus calls me and each person to be a disciple, what
encourages me in this and what is discouraging? Is it always me
getting in the way?
- When have I found it difficult to accept others more talented
and gifted than myself? What gave me the strength to overcome my
pettiness?
- When I am a ‘servant’ how do I feel? Do I take time and
reflect on these ‘servant moments’ and express my gratitude to
God for His gifts to me?
- A good servant is one described as: reliable, attentive,
obedient, trustworthy, loyal, patient and kind. How am I doing with
these?
- The natural characteristics of children are: joy, capacity
for wonder, openness, willingness to learn, honesty, creativity,
humility. These are qualities of a good disciple. How am I doing
in being this kind of apostle? What do I have to work on?
