Reflection for Wednesday, Eighth week in Ordinary Time


TODAY'S WORD

Mark: 10:37 "And James and John said to Jesus, “Grant us to sit, one at Your right hand and one at Your left, in Your glory.”


TODAY'S REFLECTION

In this morning’s gospel reading, we find one of several clashes between Jesus and his disciples in Mark’s gospel, as they make their way to Jerusalem, the city where Jesus will be crucified.

Jesus and his disciples are clearly on different wavelengths.

The difference between them finds expression in the very different questions they ask of each other.

The question the two disciples, James and John, ask Jesus focuses on glory, honour, status.

The question that Jesus asks James and John focuses on the experience of rejection and suffering that he has to face into, ‘Can you drink the cup that I must drink, or be baptized with the baptism with which I must be baptized?’

Jesus was referring to the cup of suffering and the baptism of fire.

The question of James and John showed their interest in self-promotion.

The question of Jesus showed his interest in self-giving.

At the heart of being his disciple is self-giving love, becoming the servant of others, and this will often mean taking the way of the cross, as Jesus knew from his own experience.

James and John, and all of us, are being called to follow the one who did not come to be served but to serve, whose purpose in life was not to promote himself but to empty himself for others.

It is only in following this way that we will receive that share in Jesus’ glory that was the focus of James and John’s request.


SAINT OF THE DAY:ST. PHILIP NERI

He was born in Florence in 1515. At the age of eighteen he went to Rome, and earned his living as a tutor. He undertook much-needed charitable work among the young men of the city, and started a brotherhood to help the sick poor and pilgrims.

Very many of the saints, not just St Philip, have an abiding terror of being looked up to.

For they know their imperfections better than anyone else, and being revered by other people is doubly bad.

It is bad for the others, who should be revering God instead, and for themselves, because they might be tempted to believe their own image and believe themselves to be worthy.

We are not saints yet, but we, too, should beware. Uprightness and virtue do have their rewards, in self-respect and in respect from others, and it is easy to find ourselves aiming for the result rather than the cause.


RESOLUTION

Let us resolve to aim for joy, rather than respectability. Let us make fools of ourselves from time to time, and thus see ourselves, for a moment, as the all-wise God sees us.

Have an amazing day

Happy Feast