Homilies
Twenty–fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 24, 2006
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What’s the Meaning?
The readings for today’s Mass, the Twenty–fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, teach us that, to become great, one must give up all ambition of becoming great, except in one thing: serving your neighbor.
In today’s Gospel, we come across the funny scene where some of the disciples of Jesus are arguing among themselves about who is the greatest. Jesus, of course, corrects this worldly ambition. He calls out the Twelve and says to them: “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Then he picks up a little child to illustrate his point. Holding the child in his arms, Jesus tells them that whoever welcomes such a child welcomes also the Father into his heart.
But the first reading for today’s Mass reminds us that men often choose a mode of behavior which is directly opposed to serving the weak. We hear the men say: Let us rather eat, drink, and be marry, for tomorrow we die. Let us use our power to get what we want. The weak are useless, let us take advantage of them. And let us put down any so–called virtuous man whose way of life is inconvenient to us. Let us insult him, treat him shamefully, even kill him. We will see if he is really protected by some higher power.
In the Epistle, Saint James is addressing the Christians of his diocese who are acting in accord with this worldly lust for power. There are conflicts among the faithful, and Saint James asks them to reflect on the cause of the conflict. He asks: “Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you?” While the men speaking in the first reading are clearly evil, Saint James is telling his own flock of Christians that they are committing the same sort of sin. Like the men of the first reading, they too are craving things they don’t have. These cravings make war, first within themselves and then within the community.
These so–called Christians are not looking to God, not asking the Father to give them what they need. Or, if they are asking, they are asking for the wrong thing, seeking only things to satisfy their pleasures.
What’s the Message?
We would be naïve not to see ourselves in the wicked men of the first reading. If Jesus thought that even his closest followers were in need of instruction in how to lead, how much more are we?
The fact is, we do live for ourselves and “live for the day.” There is “disorder and wickedness” within the Church and this is coming from “envy and selfish ambition.” Rarely does one find a parish that is not rife with gossip. Often the gossip turns to outright calumny and character assassination. Why? Saint James tells us: we are choosing pleasure and the wisdom of the world over peace and the wisdom of God. Saint James says: “The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits.”
How do we obtain this wisdom, this peace, these good fruits? By serving the weak. As Christians, we are called to be leaders the way Christ himself was a leader: washing feet, carrying someone else’s cross, bleeding.
Jesus tells us again and again that true life comes only to those who sacrifice their own lives for God’s little ones. If you serve others, you will be blessed. If you strive for peace you yourself will become a true child of God. (Mt. 5:9)
What’s the Response?
A good response to today’s readings could be to examine the things for which we tend to petition God. In the Epistle, Saint James says that we do not have what we need because we do not ask for it. Or, when we do ask, we do not receive because we ask wrongly, only looking for pleasure. “O Lord won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz” was the old Janis Joplin song of the 60’s.
We have cravings from within, disordered desires. These cravings prevent us from acting like true Christian leaders, for they keep us occupied with ourselves and not the needs of others. Hence, we need to petition God to help us conquer these enemies from within. We need to petition him to teach us to ask for that which we ought to be asking. We need to ask him to teach us to concern ourselves with the common good, especially with respect to his little ones.
The “insolent men” we hear about in today’s responsorial psalm are, in fact, our enemies from within. We can, therefore, respond to today’s readings by singing with the Psalmist:
For insolent men have risen against me,
ruthless men seek my life;
they do not set God before them.
But surely, God is my helper;
the Lord is the upholder of my life.
With a freewill–offering I will sacrifice to you;
I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.
Amen.
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Contribution by Brother Anthony Myers
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