THE TWENTY-NINTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – B
Have you noticed that for the last several weeks the Liturgy of the Word has been becoming increasingly difficult to hear without our wanting to make accommodations so that they will be more palatable? The readings are hard to take and increasingly demanding. Wouldn’t you think that neophytes and those struggling with faith should hear gentler readings? And what about those who are thinking about being Baptized, those catechumens on the way to the Font? Shouldn’t they be spared? Their journey is difficult enough without their having to see the full implications of what being Jesus’ disciples will mean for them.
It’s clear that Jesus is not interested in selling a product. Were he, he would paint a brighter picture replete with rewards and benefits for those who would sign up. Watch the way products are pitched today. Pay attention and you will wonder how you have lived life this far without whatever is being touted. And look how often the sellers are celebrities. Doesn’t their having the product make it all the more attractive? But that is not what Jesus does.
Bette Davis, in All About Eve, invited those present for that evening to fasten their seatbelts because it was going to be a bumpy ride. Annie Dillard opined that seatbelts and safety equipment ought to be distributed to everyone at the doors of the church as they came together to celebrate Liturgy. What if it (the Liturgy) worked this time? The readings for this Sunday are among the most demanding we will hear, outside those of Holy Week, and should leave us most vulnerable to their transforming power as we move into the Liturgy of the Eucharist.
The Lord was pleased to crush him in his infirmity. The reading is taken from the fourth of the Suffering Servant songs in the Book of Isaiah. We will hear these words again on Passion Sunday and Good Friday. How does the Servant’s suffering and that of God’s son Jesus please the Lord? God is pleased because of their link to the scapegoat in the Book of Leviticus. As did the goat sent out into the wilderness laden with the people’s sins, so do the Servant and Jesus bear the sins of the many. It is not pleasure in suffering that the Lord takes, but in their willingness to sacrifice themselves and be atonement for others’ sins. Remember the words: By their stripes you were healed?
When you are discouraged in your faith-walk, go back to today’s brief second reading. So often popular religiosity of the evangelical type paints a picture of Jesus as a distant and transcendent Lord, seated in glory upon a resplendent throne. Make no mistake about it. Jesus is Lord. Jesus is enthroned at God’s right hand. But listen to what Hebrews proclaims. Yes, Jesus is the Son of God who has risen to the high heavens to reign in majesty. Yet he is the high priest who remains sympathetic to us in our weakness because of the intensity of his testing, that is his passion. He understands our suffering and wants to support us in ours. So let us confidently approach the throne of grace knowing that we will receive mercy and grace in our difficulties. That is the Gospel in succinct form and ought to be the constant proclamation of the Church. Sinners ought to be constantly reminded that with the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption. They and we ought to hear that message far more often than we hear threats of judgment and condemnation. Heaven has much more allure than does hell as motivator of repentance.
Can you identify with James and John in this Sunday’s gospel? Haven’t you ever wondered what’s in it for me? That’s basically the point the two apostles are pushing. They have listened to Jesus. They have seen his mighty deeds. Remember that when Jesus does something particularly significant he always makes certain that Peter, James and John are with him. Having seen those powerful deeds and been awed by the raising of Jairus’ daughter, they have concluded that through Jesus will come the Messiah’s reign, the Kingdom. They want to be next in command after Jesus when that reign begins. Sure they seem ambitious. Perhaps they are naïve. Most of all they are human and normal in their desires for position and power. The more you can identify with them the more powerful will be the impact of what follows after Jesus asks them if they can pay the price for what they want. Can you drink of the cup that I will drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?
James and John’s boast that they could drink from the cup and submit to a baptism, at this point in their journey, is not filtered through their experience of Jesus’ Passion and Death. That hasn’t happened yet. There is the youthful confidence that they can fight battles at Jesus’ side. These two, remember, are known for their temper and are called Sons of Thunder. Jesus affirms their declaration, assuring them that they will, indeed, drink from the cup and share the baptism, but the desired results may not follow since God is the determiner of position in heaven.
The other ten apostles are indignant following the exchange between Jesus and James and John. Perhaps their indignation sprang from their own desires to have that that James and John sought. Had they asked, they would have received the same response. What is important is that this moment segues into the proclamation of a fundamental attitude that must be common to all who are disciples. This should have served as a clear warning that their own attitudes had to adjust just as did their expectations for the type of Messiah Jesus would prove to be.
Jesus begins something entirely new, a new kind of kingdom unlike that experienced by the Gentiles. Lording it over others can have no place in Jesus’ realm. In Jesus’ kingdom, those who wish to be great among you will be your servants; those who wish to be first among you will be the slaves of all. In other words, among those who are Jesus’ disciples there can be no lusting after power. All will have to imitate the One they follow. That is how Jesus ministered, even to the shedding of his blood. That is how the disciples must minister – even those who are in charge of the community. Remember the pope’s revered title: Servus servorum Dei. The servant of the servants of God. And that is what the Church should be all about, a servant people in imitation of Christ’s service.
A word about the cup and a word about Baptism follow. You will drink of the cup that I will drink. Each time we come together to celebrate Eucharist and to share the meal we are invited to drink from the cup. Jesus said: Take and drink, this is the cup of my blood… When we do that we enter more deeply into union with Jesus and those in Communion with him. Our shared action is our pledge to be a people who see the full implications of the cup and are willing to live out those implications, even to shed our blood as Jesus did his. And Baptism? When we enter the Font, remember, it is to die there. We enter into Christ’s dying. We rise there to live in union with Christ’s resurrected life. We put on Christ. We are identified with Christ and called by name just as Jesus was in his Baptism. That identification with Christ is so complete it is said that God loves the baptized with the same love God has for Jesus. Think about that. Personalize it. And stand in awe even as you ask: Do I believe this?
Look back over the history of the Church. We have to admit that there are dark periods in our history. The Holy Wars, called the Crusades, were waged in the Holy Land to rescue the holy places from the hands of the infidels and resulted in the shedding of much blood and the taking of many lives. The reign of the Inquisition resulted in many being burned at the stake. The Church was wealthy during those periods when terror reigned. Even so, in those terrible times Christ raised up those whose lives of poverty and service confronted the splendor of the Church and brought about reform. Think of Francis of Assisi. He started out to be part of the Crusades and came home to wed Lady Poverty and live a life in service of the poor. Many followed him. There are other sterling examples, too numerous to be mentioned here. And isn’t it curious that the Church always thrives when the Church is being persecuted? Watching those drink from the cup from which Jesus drank and being baptized with the baptism with which Jesus was baptized inspires others to want to come and do the same. It never fails.
Perhaps that is why this Sunday’s readings are proclaimed even to those struggling with faith and to those on their way to baptism. It is better to know the full implications of the call right from the start and then to remember that the one they will follow was similarly tested in every way and now invites all to approach even in their weakness and consciousness of sin, knowing their will be mercy and grace for timely help.
And those of us who have been on The Way for some time must remember, too, and remembering, pray for the grace to be faithful to the very end where life begins.
Sincerely,
Didymus
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