Daily Mass Gospel Reflection- Serving Honor

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 10-17-2021 | Aux. Bishop R. Barron

[MurphsLaw]

Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Mark 10:35-45

Friends, in today’s Gospel, James and John ask Jesus to place them in high places in his kingdom. They are asking for two of the classic four substitutes for God: wealth, pleasure, power, and honor, specifically for the last two. Power is not, in itself, a bad thing. And the same is true of honor. Thomas Aquinas said that honor is the flag of virtue. It’s a way of signaling to others something that’s worth noticing.

So, what’s the problem? The problem is that they are asking for these two things in the wrong spirit. The ego will want to use power, not for God’s purposes or in service of truth, beauty, and goodness, but for its own aggrandizement and defense. When honor is sought for its own sake or in order to puff up the ego, it becomes dangerous as well.

So what’s the way out? "Whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all." When you serve others; when you become the least, you are accessing the power of God and you are seeking the honor of God.

[MurphsLaw]

+++ James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
came to Jesus and said to him,
"Teacher, we want you to do for us
whatever we ask of you." He replied, "What do you wish me to
do for you?"
They answered him, "Grant that in
your glory
we may sit one at your right and the
other at your left."
Jesus said to them, "You do not know
what you are asking.
Can you drink the cup that I drink
or be baptized with the baptism with
which I am baptized?"
They said to him, "We can."
Jesus said to them, "The cup that I
drink, you will drink,
and with the baptism with which I am
baptized, you will be baptized;
but to sit at my right or at my
left is not mine to give
but is for those for whom it has
been prepared."
When the ten heard this, they became
indignant at James and John.
Jesus summoned them and said to
them,
"You know that those who are
recognized as rulers over the
Gentiles
lord it over them,
and their great ones make their
authority over them felt.
But it shall not be so among you.
Rather, whoever wishes to be great
among you will be your servant;
whoever wishes to be first among you
will be the slave of all.
For the Son of Man did not come to but to serve and to give his life as
a ransom for many."+++

[ebb tide]

When honor is sought for its own sake or in order to puff up the ego, it becomes dangerous as well.

Bergoglio already knows he's going straight to Heaven.

Already in 2014, returning from South Korea, he (Bergoglio) joked with journalists that in two or three years, he’d be “off to the house of the Father.”

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