by Fr. Tommy Lane
“Who is the greatest?” That
is the conundrum for the apostles in today’s Gospel (Mark 9:30-37)
before Jesus taught them his different way of looking at the world.
The apostles were looking at the world through the eyes of the
world, but Jesus saw the world through the lens of the kingdom. We
live in two worlds: the world of here and now and the kingdom of
God, and as in today’s Gospel (Mark 9:309-33), they are not always
overlapping and sometimes are in opposition.
Jesus challenged the
thinking of the apostles by identifying himself with the child:
“Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me.”
(Mark 9:37) On many other occasions also, Jesus challenged the
thinking of the world:
Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. (Matt 6:33) To a world that is sometimes greedy and selfish, those are challenging words.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for there is the kingdom of heaven. (Matt 5:3) Poor in spirit, to put it simply, means knowing one’s need of God so if we do indeed know our need of God, we are indeed already enjoying in some way the kingdom of heaven. There is a different poverty in today’s world—the poverty of not knowing our need of God.
Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me. (Matt 25:40) There are so many acts of kindness done to others that we never know.
I attended an event in an
arena far away from here. Part of the event honored locals. One of
them was a volunteer or part-time firefighter who went into a
burning house and rescued an elderly lady. Of course the fireman
received a round of applause. Then when there was mention of a local
sports team that won a tournament, the whole arena went nuts. The
firefighter saved a woman’s life and he received a round of
applause. Everyone went nuts when the local team was mentioned. I
left that event asking myself questions about what is most
important.
The second reading deals
with problems caused by jealousy. Jealousy, we could say, is caused
by people looking at the world through the eyes of the world instead
of looking through the lens of the kingdom. So what if others have
whatever they have. It won’t be going into the casket with them and
we don’t know what crosses they have. What will go with us to the
next life is how we loved God and neighbor.
The problem in the first
reading is also the clash between the way of the world and the way
of God. People feel challenged by someone living a good life and so
they put the good man to the test simply because his goodness is a
challenge to them. The goodness in the good man causes some wicked
reaction in those who are not living a good life. What they should
have done, of course, is to try to emulate the good man and try to
follow his example instead of causing trouble for him. That first
reading could be seen as a prophecy of Jesus’ passion. We read of
some plots against Jesus in the Gospels (Matt 22:15; Luke 11:54),
but it gets really critical after Jesus raised Lazarus from the
dead. John’s Gospel tells us that from that day the leaders were
planning to kill Jesus (John 11:53). Jesus raised Lazarus and they
reacted by planning to kill Jesus.
These opposite ways of
looking at the world came to a head on Calvary. There we see evil
and goodness, the world inflicting evil on Jesus and Jesus
undertaking persecution and offering his life to the Father for us.
That battle goes on all around us and we are all caught up in it in
some way. In some way, that battle is going on within us as none of
us is yet, I imagine, the image of God we are called to be. We are
all on the journey to better image God.
“Who is the greatest?” That
is the conundrum for the apostles in today’s Gospel. They were
looking at the world through the eyes of the world, but Jesus saw
the world through the lens of the kingdom. Again and again Jesus
challenged the thinking of the world.
Blessed are the poor in spirit (who know their need of God), for there is the kingdom of heaven. (Matt 5:3)
Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me. (Matt 25:40)
Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. (Matt 6:33)
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2024
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More Homilies for the Twenty-Fifth Sunday of Year B
Jesus on the cross teaching us how to respond to unjust suffering 2015
The Curé of Ars: the last becomes first
If anyone wants to be first he must be servant of all