Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jan 30 2025

To Lord or Not to Lord

One of the temptations in having younger siblings is the felt need to remind them of their place in the family “pecking order,” especially when it comes to certain privileges that belong to the eldest sibling(s). Every social, political, or family group has “elders,” either by age or rank, who claim certain privileges as their due. Another way to put this is “lording it over others.”

Jesus works to undermine this approach to community life. He has been teaching his disciples that he must suffer, die, and then be raised to eternal life. He has just finished telling this to them for the third time when James and John come up to claim a seat at his right and left when he comes into his kingdom. After all, they were among the first to be called! No wonder the others were about to throttle them—not because James and John should not have made such a claim, but because they beat the others to it. It’s hard to give up “lording” when the opportunity arrives.

The Letter to the Hebrews speaks of Jesus as the great high priest able to sympathize with us in our weaknesses, similarly tested, yet without sin. This Jesus calls us to service, warning us, as he did the disciples, against lording it over one another and making our authority felt. We too are to follow him in the way of service and self-giving, caring for our brothers and sisters, humbly and without regard for reward.

Consider/Discuss

Are there particular circumstances that tempt you to “lord it over” someone else? What do you do?
Do you believe that Jesus really was tested in every way and yet was without sin? Which part of this do you find hardest to believe?

Responding to the Word

Lord Jesus Christ, you teach us that we will find honor in serving each other, not in seeking positions of superiority or power over others. You came to give your life as a ransom for “the many”—meaning “for all.” Give us a share in this spirit of generous service.

Jan 30 2025

Scripture Study for

The role that God plays in suffering has long plagued religious people. The misfortune of sinners may be just punishment for their offenses, but the suffering of the righteous is always disturbing. In the reading from Isaiah, the servant gives himself as a sin offering; he endures his agony so that others can be justi fied. His death will win life for others, and in this way he will accomplish God’s will. The violence inflicted upon him is accepted, embraced, and put to rest. With the offering of this innocent scapegoat, reconciliation with God is accomplished.

In order to demonstrate Jesus’ preeminence, the author of the second reading compares him to the high priest. Just as the high priest passed through the curtain into the presence of God in the Holy of Holies, there to sprinkle sacrificial blood on the mercy seat, so Christ, exalted after shedding his own blood, passed through the heavens into the presence of God. His sacrifice far exceeds anything that the ritual performed by the high priest might have actually accomplished or hoped to accomplish. Unlike previous high priests who approached the mercy seat alone and only on the Day of Atonement, Christ enables each one of us to approach God, and to do so continually.

James and John seek places of prominence in Jesus’ kingdom and Jesus informs them that real prominence is found in service, not in wielding authority over others. The proclaimed willingness of the sons of Zebedee to accept the cup that Jesus will eventually drink and be baptized in his baptism is another example of their misunderstanding. Even if they had grasped the meaning of his words, they could hardly have imagined their implications. Since they believed that Jesus would reign in glory, they could certainly not conceive of his ignominious suffering and death. Jesus assures them that they will indeed face what he must face, but they will not do so willingly as they now presume they will.

Jan 28 2025

How to Be a Hero

It is healthy to want to be a hero. A nine-year-old girl wants to be Wonder Woman, jumping from a cliff to land on a horse. Elsewhere, a twelve-year-old boy wants to soar into space to rescue planets. A twenty-year-old young woman wants to work with the homeless to gladden their lives.

All young people want to be heroes.

A seminarian and I were working on his homily in my office. As he talked, I heard an undercurrent of that desire for heroism in his unpacking of the scriptures. So I brought it up. He shrank back from the word “heroic” and said, “I don’t want to be proud.”

I winced. Heroism is not a bad thing, something to be quashed in the young. To want to be heroic is motivating. It drives you toward excellence. It keeps you going when life gets tough. Heroic virtue is one of the hallmarks of the saints. They glorified God as they were torn apart by lions.

Heroism is good. Young people want to be heroes.

Jesus understood this drive. He just shifted the focus. Jesus didn’t say to James and young John, “Don’t wish to be the greatest.” He said, “Whoever wishes to be great will be your servant.” He didn’t say, “Don’t wish to be first.” He said, “Whoever wants to be first, will be the slave of all.” He didn’t say, “Don’t wish to be great.” He said, “This is how to be great.”

Jesus wants heroes.

Jesus himself is the Hero of heroes. Jesus himself shows us how to be heroic. He suffered and died to show us what heroism looks like. For God’s sake, let us not settle for mediocrity. For God’s sake, let us be great! God’s great, God’s heroes, God’s saints: to God be the glory for our heroic lives!

Consider/Discuss

What are the tugs and pulls around the issue of heroism? What is the difference between the temptation toward “being proud” and the drive toward “being heroic”?
In your spiritual growth, where are you cultivating heroic virtue? Where do you find yourself sliding into “oh, well”?

Living and Praying with the Word

Jesus, you show us how to be heroic—how to serve and not stop serving, how to give and not stop giving, how to love and keep loving unto death. We want to be like you. On our own, when things go well, we cheer for ourselves and think that we are great. Show us what true greatness is. Help us to strive for nothing less. For we want to give you glory with our lives. Come, Holy Spirit, and empower us to be heroes for God.

Jan 28 2025

Scripture Study for

This last of the Servant Songs of Isaiah is the most perplexing, not least because it claims that in the mysterious plan of God, the Servant’s suffering will contribute to the salvation of others (53:5). Although our translation reads that God was “pleased to crush him in infirmity,” more recent translations reflect the idea not of divine pleasure but of divine will, which is not the same thing. It was God’s will that the Servant remain faithful despite the suffering, and this same suffering is now offered for the very people who cause it. The Servant will be glorified, however, and will see the fruitfulness of his suffering, which will not have been for nothing.

The author of Hebrews has been developing the point that the Son of God entered into the human experience, including death, to bring his brothers and sisters to glory. Now Jesus is able to fulfill perfectly the function of the High Priest, which was to worship God and to intercede for the faithful. The humanity and suffering of Jesus mean that he is able to commiserate with us, not standing aloof and indifferent to our struggles and need for mercy but finding common cause with us in our human weakness. Thus there is no need to fear when approaching “the throne of grace,” because we find there a sympathetic and infinitely effective advocate.

For the last several chapters in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus has repeatedly told his disciples that they must be like children, that they must give up everything, that the last will be first and the first last, that they must take up their crosses. Yet the sons of Zebedee, two of Jesus’ closest followers, have not absorbed any of this. Indeed, as Jesus’ closest companions, they expect to receive honors when he establishes the kingdom. Jesus once again tries to drive home his points about humility, spiritual poverty, and exercise of authority. The Son of Man is a model for them, and he approaches the world in a very different way, which the disciples still do not understand or accept.

Jan 16 2025

God’s Currency

In a country that has a strong commitment to separation of church and state, it is noteworthy that our money, both bills and coins, is inscribed with the words “In God We Trust.” The history of this motto and its relation to our currency goes back to the Civil War. Changing it has never gotten much support. It serves as a helpful reminder about where our true security lies.

In the Gospel, the Pharisees, along with some supporters of the Roman regime called Herodians, get into the act of trying to trap Jesus into taking a stand that would get him in trouble with either the Roman authorities or his own people. But Jesus, as much the fox as Herod was reputed to be, slips out of their net by noting that there can be different loyalties without a loss of priorities.

Jesus calls on them to produce the idolatrous coin that no devout Jew should carry, since it declared Caesar to be a god. Then he advises them to return to the emperor the coin that bears his image but to return to God what bears God’s image, that is, themselves, made in the image of God.

A new order is revealed when we give God’s image back to God by our words and deeds, showing God’s image to others. When this happens, the motto “In God We Trust” becomes not merely stamped on paper or branded on copper, but encountered in living flesh and blood.

Consider/Discuss

Do you ever reflect on the words stamped on the money in your pocket?
When have you experienced the tension between “repay[ing] to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God”?

Responding to the Word

We pray to recognize what it means to be a good citizen, giving to our country what is needed for the support of the common good. And we pray to discern wisely when loyalty to Christ and the building up of the kingdom of God may call for a response that challenges what civil authorities propose.