Twenty-Ninth Sunday Ordinary Time – Cycle B
Isaiah 53: 10-11; Hebrews 4: 14-16;
Mark 10: 35-45
Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized? James and John answered “we can.” Did they truly fathom what they were saying?
I was 23 years old and living at home with my parents. I was engaged to marry Susan, but dates and china patterns had not been chosen yet. Life was good. One day at the dinner table my father told me that he had found a house that would be perfect for Susan and me. We saw the house, worked out the financing and made that leap of faith. The house was ours. It needed paint from top to bottom, the roof needed to be replaced and the yard needed a lot of work, but we rolled up our sleeves, pitched in, and everything was accomplished in short order. I remember thinking that now the work is done, I can sit back and relax in my new home. But it just isn’t that simple, is it?
Before moving in, I understood that the grass needed cutting in the summer and that the snow needed shoveling in the winter. I understood that the leaves needed raking in the fall and the garbage needed to be set out once a week. It seemed easy enough. But there is so much more that I didn’t realize. Owning a house takes a lot of effort and responsibility. The work is never done. There’s always something that needs to be fixed or unclogged or cleaned and put away. Sometimes it can be overwhelming. Those are the sacrifices and the challenges that we face when we commit to owning a home. Jesus was trying to teach this same lesson to the apostles.
In the last few weeks we have heard Jesus telling his followers, again and again, that the Son of Man would suffer and be killed. The apostles still didn’t get it. Today we hear that James and John want Jesus to guarantee them places of honor in the Kingdom of God. Jesus is trying to explain that being his disciples will not be all about rainbows and roses. There will be suffering and sin. There will be prejudice and persecution. There will be those who do not believe or do not care. There will be those who wonder “What’s in it for me?” as James and John did. There will be an unending workload. Jesus tells us that whoever wishes to be great will be a servant to all. For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve.
A few weeks from now, many of our young people will be confirmed. Part of their preparation for this sacrament is volunteering for various service projects. But, like buying a house, the service doesn’t end when the sacrament is conferred. As disciples of Jesus, we must continually answer his call of service to others. Those are the sacrifices and challenges that we face in being followers of Christ. Those being baptized today are entering into this same life commitment to love and serve the Lord and each other. Like James and John, they do not understand what they are being asked to do. It is our responsibility as parents, godparents, and community of believers, to guide them faithfully on this journey.
We must remember that Jesus was a radical thinker in his time. His ideas went against the grain of society. There were those who wanted to kill him for his ideals and beliefs. His followers faced the same fate. Today we live in a nation where we are free to follow Jesus. It is unlikely that anyone here today will be asked to sacrifice his or her life for Christ. But that doesn’t mean that the job is finished. The challenges of poverty, oppression, prejudice, war, hatred and disease are still with us. How do we answer these challenges? I don’t know the answer to that question. But I can tell you this much – if you are comfortable in your faith, if you think you’ve got it all figured out, if you are not actively searching for ways to serve others, then you are missing the point of today’s gospel.
In the past twenty-four hours, I’ve attended both a baptism and a funeral mass – the alpha and omega of our spiritual lives here on Earth. Both of these are milestones in our faith journey. The true test of being a disciple of Christ is what we do with the time in between.
Can you drink the cup that Jesus drinks?
Deacon Darryl J. Diemer
29th Sunday in Ordinary Time
October 18, 2009
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