20210526 SEEKING GLORY FOR SELF OR FOR GOD
26 May, 2021, Wednesday, 8th Week, Ordinary Time
First reading |
Ecclesiasticus 36:1-2,5-7,13-19 © |
Lord, let the nations acknowledge you
Have mercy on us, Master, Lord of all, and look on us,
cast the fear of yourself over every nation.
Let them acknowledge you, just as we have acknowledged
that there is no God but you, Lord.
Send new portents, do fresh wonders,
win glory for your hand and your right arm.
Gather together all the tribes of Jacob,
restore them their inheritance as in the beginning.
Have mercy, Lord, on the people who have invoked your name,
on Israel whom you have treated as a first-born.
Show compassion on your holy city,
on Jerusalem the place of your rest.
Fill Zion with songs of your praise,
and your sanctuary with your glory.
Bear witness to those you created in the beginning,
and bring about what has been prophesied in your name.
Give those who wait for you their reward,
and let your prophets be proved worthy of belief.
Grant, Lord, the prayer of your servants,
in accordance with Aaron’s blessing on your people,
so that all the earth’s inhabitants may acknowledge
that you are the Lord, the everlasting God.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 78(79):8-9,11,13 © |
Have mercy on us, Lord, and look on us.
Do not hold the guilt of our fathers against us.
Let your compassion hasten to meet us;
we are left in the depths of distress.
Have mercy on us, Lord, and look on us.
O God our saviour, come to our help.
Come for the sake of the glory of your name.
O Lord our God, forgive us our sins;
rescue us for the sake of your name.
Have mercy on us, Lord, and look on us.
Let the groans of the prisoners come before you;
let your strong arm reprieve those condemned to die.
But we, your people, the flock of your pasture,
will give you thanks for ever and ever.
We will tell your praise from age to age.
Have mercy on us, Lord, and look on us.
Gospel Acclamation | 1Jn2:5 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Whenever anyone obeys what Christ has said,
God’s love comes to perfection in him.
Alleluia!
Or: | Mk10:45 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
The Son of Man came to serve,
and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Mark 10:32-45 © |
The Son of Man came to give his life as a ransom for many
The disciples were on the road, going up to Jerusalem; Jesus was walking on ahead of them; they were in a daze, and those who followed were apprehensive. Once more taking the Twelve aside he began to tell them what was going to happen to him: ‘Now we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man is about to be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the pagans, who will mock him and spit at him and scourge him and put him to death; and after three days he will rise again.’
James and John, the sons of Zebedee, approached him. ‘Master,’ they said to him ‘we want you to do us a favour.’ He said to them, ‘What is it you want me to do for you?’ They said to him, ‘Allow us to sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your glory.’ ‘You do not know what you are asking’ Jesus said to them. ‘Can you drink the cup that I must drink, or be baptised with the baptism with which I must be baptised?’ They replied, ‘We can.’ Jesus said to them, ‘The cup that I must drink you shall drink, and with the baptism with which I must be baptised you shall be baptised, but as for seats at my right hand or my left, these are not mine to grant; they belong to those to whom they have been allotted.’
When the other ten heard this they began to feel indignant with James and John, so Jesus called them to him and said to them, ‘You know that among the pagans their so-called rulers lord it over them, and their great men make their authority felt. This is not to happen among you. No; anyone who wants to become great among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be first among you must be slave to all. For the Son of Man himself did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’
SEEKING GLORY FOR SELF OR FOR GOD
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [SIRACH 36:1. 4-5. 10-17; Ps 79:8-9,11,13; Mk 10:32-45]
In the first reading from the Book of Sirach, the author, writing during the period of the exile, was asking God to intervene and restore the glory of Israel with Him as their king once again. “Have mercy on us, Master, Lord of all, and look on us, cast the fear of yourself over every nation. Let them acknowledge you, just as we have acknowledged that there is no God but you, Lord. Send new portents, do fresh wonders, win glory for your hand and your right arm. Gather together all the tribes of Jacob, restore them their inheritance as in the beginning.” Indeed, after the Assyrian’s conquest of the Northern Kingdom and then the Babylonian’s conquest of the Southern Kingdom, the inhabitants of Israel were scattered all over the land around the Mediterranean Sea. Many of them took up trading. Then there was the attempt of the Syrians to impose their Hellenistic customs on the Jewish way of life, thereby causing the Maccabees to revolt against the attempted destruction of the Law and the customs of the Jews.
Indeed, their request was truly motivated by the desire to restore the kingship of Yahweh as they prayed, “Fill Zion with songs of your praise, and your sanctuary with your glory. Bear witness to those you created in the beginning, and bring about what has been prophesied in your name. Give those who wait for you their reward, and let your prophets be proved worthy of belief. Grant, Lord, the prayer of your servants, in accordance with Aaron’s blessing on your people, so that all the earth’s inhabitants may acknowledge that you are the Lord, the everlasting God.” Such prayers and requests would be honoured and answered. After all, the Lord also told His disciples that when they pray, they should say, “Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.” Asking that God’s glory and kingdom be restored is certainly in accordance with God’s plan.
However, the apostles of our Lord did not quite understand what they were asking in spite of the fact that the Lord warned them the third time that He would be scourged and be put to death. He was resolute on the road to Jerusalem, the place of His passion and glory. He told the apostles, “‘Now we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man is about to be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the pagans, who will mock him and spit at him and scourge him and put him to death; and after three days he will rise again.”
It was their preoccupation with the material and worldly aspect of glory and power that blinded them from seeing what Jesus truly wanted of them. They were seeking the worldly kingdom, just like the rich man earlier on. When we look for such things, we fail to see the more important values of the kingdom that Jesus was all the while preaching. Jesus was preaching a spiritual kingdom as He taught at the sermon on the Mount. (Mt 5-7) The values were different from that of the world. The things of the kingdom are eternal “where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal.” (Mt 6:20) Unfortunately, they were still ignorant. “James and John, the sons of Zebedee, approached him. ‘Master,’ they said to him ‘we want you to do us a favour.’ He said to them, ‘What is it you want me to do for you?’ They said to him, ‘Allow us to sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your glory.'” They wanted power and glory to be seated on the right and left, which means to occupy the most powerful positions in the kingdom of God. The other Ten were no better. “When the other ten heard this they began to feel indignant with James and John.” They too sought for the worldly kingdom. Their minds were still fixated on the world and its values. Not much of what Jesus said seemed to sink into their minds. They were still distracted.
We are no better than them. Many of us who serve the Church, as Pope Francis often warns us, are too worldly as well. He never failed to warn us about spiritual worldliness when serving the Lord. “Spiritual worldliness, which hides behind the appearance of piety and even love for the Church, consists in seeking not the Lord’s glory but human glory and personal well-being. It takes on many forms, depending on the kinds of persons and groups into which it seeps. Since it is based on carefully cultivated appearances, it is not always linked to outward sin; from without, everything appears as it should be. But if it were to seep into the Church, ‘it would be infinitely more disastrous than any other worldliness which is simply moral’. (Evangelii Gaudium, 93)
He continues, “In some people we see an ostentatious preoccupation for the liturgy, for doctrine and for the Church’s prestige, but without any concern that the Gospel have a real impact on God’s faithful people and the concrete needs of the present time. In this way, the life of the Church turns into a museum piece or something which is the property of a select few. In others, this spiritual worldliness lurks behind a fascination with social and political gain, or pride in their ability to manage practical affairs, or an obsession with programmes of self-help and self-realization. It can also translate into a concern to be seen, into a social life full of appearances, meetings, dinners and receptions. It can also lead to a business mentality, caught up with management, statistics, plans and evaluations whose principal beneficiary is not God’s people but the Church as an institution. The mark of Christ, incarnate, crucified and risen, is not present; closed and elite groups are formed, and no effort is made to go forth and seek out those who are distant or the immense multitudes who thirst for Christ. Evangelical fervour is replaced by the empty pleasure of complacency and self-indulgence.” (Evangelii Gaudium, 95)
Rather, we are called as the Lord asked of us, to “drink the cup that I must drink, or be baptised with the baptism with which I must be baptized but as for seats at my right hand or my left, these are not mine to grant; they belong to those to whom they have been allotted.” Our calling to share in the Kingdom presupposes that we go through the trials of the Kingdom. The cup in the Old Testament refers to the suffering and punishment of God. (cf Isa 53:10) The Jewish authorities and the Romans would make the apostles and disciples of Jesus drink the cup of persecution. But this would be the way to usher in the Kingdom as the Lord implied when He said, “You know that among the pagans their so-called rulers lord it over them, and their great men make their authority felt. This is not to happen among you. No; anyone who wants to become great among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be first among you must be slave to all.”
Jesus was referring to Himself as the Suffering Servant in Isaiah. “But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isa 53:5f) Indeed, “For the Son of Man himself did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” This is the cup that He would have to drink, for He said at the Last Supper, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” (Lk 22:20) And at the Garden in Gethsemane, He prayed in anguish, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.” (Lk 22:42)
So today, we are called to do all things for the greater glory of God not for our glory or for our self-interests. And we are called to do it according to His divine will for us. We must learn from St Ignatius who said this in his Spiritual Exercises, “God created human beings to praise, reverence, and serve God, and by doing this, to save their souls. God created all other things on the face of the earth to help fulfill this purpose. From this it follows that we are to use the things of this world only to the extent that they help us to this end, and we ought to rid ourselves of the things of this world to the extent that they get in the way of this end. For this it is necessary to make ourselves indifferent to all created things as much as we are able, so that we do not necessarily want health rather than sickness, riches rather than poverty, honor rather than dishonor, a long rather than a short life, and so in all the rest, so that we ultimately desire and choose only what is most conducive for us to the end for which God created us.” (First Principle and Foundation) Indeed, let us keep in mind the motto of St Ignatius, “Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam”, which is “For the Greater Glory of God.”
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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