September 19, Sunday

Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Who Is the Greatest?

“We are the greatest, the mightiest, the strongest nation on earth,” say the politicians. “I am the greatest of all time,” says the boxer. “I am the boss, and you do what I say,” says the manager. “I am stronger than you,” says the schoolboy. “Anyone who wants to be first must make himself or herself the last and the servant of all,” says Jesus. Jesus asks us, “What do you say?”

 

First Reading: Wis. 2:12, 17-20

And then I took a hard look at what’s smart and what’s stupid. What’s left to do after you’ve been king? That’s a hard act to follow. You just do what you can, and that’s it. But I did see that it’s better to be smart than stupid, just as light is better than darkness. Even so, though the smart ones see where they’re going and the stupid ones grope in the dark, they’re all the same in the end. One fate for all—and that’s it.

I hate life. As far as I can see, what happens on earth is a bad business. It’s smoke—and spitting into the wind.

And I hated everything I’d accomplished and accumulated on this earth. I can’t take it with me—no, I have to leave it to whoever comes after me. Whether they’re worthy or worthless—and who’s to tell?—they’ll take over the earthly results of my intense thinking and hard work. Smoke.

That’s when I called it quits, gave up on anything that could be hoped for on this earth. What’s the point of working your fingers to the bone if you hand over what you worked for to someone who never lifted a finger for it? Smoke, that’s what it is. A bad business from start to finish. So what do you get from a life of hard labour? Pain and grief from dawn to dusk. Never a decent night’s rest. Nothing but smoke.

 

Second Reading: James 3:16-4:3

Live Well, Live Wisely

Do you want to be counted wise, to build a reputation for wisdom? Here’s what you do: Live well, live wisely, live humbly. It’s the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts. Mean-spirited ambition isn’t wisdom. Boasting that you are wise isn’t wisdom. Twisting the truth to make yourselves sound wise isn’t wisdom. It’s the furthest thing from wisdom—it’s animal cunning, devilish conniving. Whenever you’re trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others’ throats.

Real wisdom, God’s wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor.

Where do you think all these appalling wars and quarrels come from? Do you think they just happen? Think again. They come about because you want your own way, and fight for it deep inside yourselves. You lust for what you don’t have and are willing to kill to get it. You want what isn’t yours and will risk violence to get your hands on it.

^2-3 You wouldn’t think of just asking God for it, would you? And why not? Because you know you’d be asking for what you have no right to. You’re spoiled children, each wanting your own way.

 

Gospel:  Mark 9:30-37

Leaving there, they went through Galilee. He didn’t want anyone to know their whereabouts, for he wanted to teach his disciples. He told them, “The Son of Man is about to be betrayed to some people who want nothing to do with God. They will murder him. Three days after his murder, he will rise, alive.” They didn’t know what he was talking about, but were afraid to ask him about it.

They came to Capernaum. When he was safe at home, he asked them, “What were you discussing on the road?”

The silence was deafening—they had been arguing with one another over who among them was greatest.

 He sat down and summoned the Twelve. “So you want first place? Then take the last place. Be the servant of all.”

He put a child in the middle of the room. Then, cradling the little one in his arms, he said, “Whoever embraces one of these children as I do embraces me, and far more than me—God who sent me.”

 

Prayer

God, giver of all good gifts,
give us the ambition to belong
among the last and the least
as people who know how to serve,
generously and without condescension,
the people around us,
especially all who are little and brittle.
We ask this through him
who made himself the servant of all,
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

 

Reflection:

The greatest is the one who most resembles Christ

“The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men.” What a beautiful image of love – God the lover throws himself into the hands of his beloved, even if it would involve rejection, torture and killing. The lover has no other way to express all his love than to throw himself into the arms of a loved one. This is what God has done: he turned himself into the hands of people, knowing fully well that they would do to him what they wanted.

The disciples are not able to understand this love of the Lord. How to comprehend the defeat and even the death of the Messiah? They are unable to accept the scandal of the passion of the Messiah. Still, they continue to follow him to Jerusalem, but of course with dreams as opposed to those of Jesus. Centuries later, although with greater understandings of the Mission and the words of Jesus, unfortunately we continue to maintain similar aspirations of the disciples of Jesus and fight with one another for recognition, acceptance and power, positions and prestige.

Our Christian vocation calls us to be at the service of others. But we are tempted today by a “service” which is in reality, “self-serving”. Jesus asks us to care for one another out of love. It is a personal invitation: “Whoever would be first among you must be the last, and the servant of all”. This criterion is for personal evaluation and not to judge someone else. Jesus did not say : “If your neighbour wants to be first, let him be the servant!” We have to be careful to avoid judgmental looks.

Pope Francis during his apostolic visit to Cuba in September 2015, had said: “This caring for others out of love means, putting the question of our brothers and sisters at the centre. Service always looks to their faces, touches their flesh, senses their closeness and even, in some cases, “suffers” that closeness and tries to help them. Service is never ideological, for we do not serve ideas, we serve people.”

Jesus had asked his disciples, “What were you discussing on the way?” (v. 33). The church is not a stepping-stone to get to positions of prestige, to emerge, to gain control over others. It is the place where everyone complies with the gifts he/she has received from God, celebrates their greatness in humble service to others. In God’s eyes, the greatest is the one who most resembles Christ, who is the servant of all (Lk22:27).

Do I have resentments, jealousies, conflicts, kept in my heart? What consequences do they bring to my personal life, to my family, to my community?

Video available on Youtube: The greatest is the one who most resembles Christ