Dear Parishioner,

In the past few weeks we have heard how the Apostles were preoccupied with various forms of the above question: they argued about who is the greatest (25th Sunday), wanted to protect the power of the ‘in-crowd’ (26th Sunday) and Peter asked what reward they might get for following Jesus (28th Sunday). Today James and John ask Jesus for the highest places in his kingdom and the other ten are indignant with them.

What is Mark telling us? He is indicating that the Twelve, even though they were men who believed in Jesus and were loyal to him, often completely failed to understand his teaching and values. In the verses directly before today’s Gospel, Jesus told the Twelve that he would face torture and death when they reached Jerusalem, yet amazingly, it is straight after this that James and John make their request and the others resent it! With this juxtaposition, Mark underlines the fact that, though the Twelve were ordinary people who were so slow to understand Jesus, it was with this group that Jesus set out to change the world – and did it. We are reminded that Jesus still does this in our time: he calls all of us, as we are, to change our world, with his values.

Jesus and the Twelve were travelling towards Jerusalem. The Readings and psalm of today indicate the depth of suffering that Jesus will undergo in Jerusalem: suffering and death in fidelity to his mission and in total trust in his Father. Later, James and John would also, as Jesus foretold, follow their Master in suffering: James was beheaded by Herod Agrippa and John was persecuted and sent into exile.

In seeing the indignation of the others, Jesus made it clear that the standard of greatness in God’s Kingdom is not power, but service. The test of greatness is not, “What can I get out of this?” but rather, “What service can I give?” Just imagine how our society would be transformed today if everyone acted in that way!

Have a blessed week.

Sr. Catherine Booth MSOLA