PRI Reflections on Scripture • 5-29-24 - Wednesday of the 8th Week in Ordinary Time

Finding God In Our Hearts with Msgr. Don Fischer

Gospel Mark 10:32-45
The disciples were on the way, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus went ahead of them. They were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. Taking the Twelve aside again, he began to tell them what was going to happen to him. "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles who will mock him, spit upon him, scourge him, and put him to death, but after three days he will rise."
Then 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 chalice 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 chalice 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 be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Reflection Jesus is describing to his disciples the essence of who he is. He is a servant coming into the world to do something for everyone else, even giving up his life. And he wants to teach this to his disciples. And in a very obvious way, in this story, they don't get it. They don't understand it. Not only do they not get it, but as soon as he describes his self-giving, they turn to him and say, we want you to give us what we want. And Jesus
in his kindness, and his gentleness just makes it clear to them, look what I'm asking you to do in this world is to be engaged in me. In me and you through baptism. And you want to drink the cup. And the cup is selflessness. You learn how to be a servant. That's the essence of what I long for all of you to be.
It's a beautiful way of making clear how difficult it often is for us to get past our self-centeredness.
Closing Prayer Father, it's natural for us as human beings to be caring about what we need. But break us of that habit that we can open ourselves to what you empower us to be. It's not that we can be the selfless creatures you want us to be, but with you we can be that selfless creature. Fill us with a spirit of giving and we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.