Readings: Isaiah 53.10-11 / Psalm 33 (R/22) / Hebrews 4.14-16 / Mark: 10.35-45
Do you have a special place,
a place where you go to find yourself, to be at peace, to be happy in?
For some, it could be the sun-lit kitchen in the morning
or a beach to walk on at sunset.
For others, a prayer space to rest quietly in God
or downtown for some shopping therapy.
And going to this place, who do you invite to be with you?
Perhaps, your wife to that restaurant where you both had your first date.
Or, your closest friends to hike with you
through the woods ablaze with autumn hues and shades.
May be, even your neighbor to sit with you
on your favorite bench in the park as watch your grandchildren play.
I think our Gospel today invites you and me to consider such a place.
A place where we can be together with Jesus;
where we and Jesus can enjoy each other’s good company.
In our Gospel reading today,
we read of James and John wanting to be with Jesus,
wanting to be with him in his glory.
They want to sit on his right and on his left.
And so continue enjoying being in his presence, being his friends.
What James and John want is no different from what we all want.
We want to be with the people we like, we love;
with family and friends: to be beside them always
and to be in their good company.
Why? Because we know that with them we are better, more contented.
They draw out the best in us to live the good and happy life
with and for one another.
James and John remind us of our own friendship with Jesus.
We too want to be with Jesus; to be beside him;
and to grow in friendship with him.
No matter how limited our human efforts are of being Jesus’ friend,
we keep trying to do this well, don't we?
-- By living as faithfully as we can before God, who is our Father as he is Jesus’ father.
-- By being as charitable and prayerful like Jesus was.
-- By trying as best as we can to live and move and have our being in his Spirit.
Today’s Good News is that there is indeed such a place
where we can be beside Jesus and live more fully in his good company.
As Jesus tells James and John, the other disciples and us,
this is not a place of honour, privilege or position,
like that of sitting at the head of a table and being seen to be great.
Rather, it is to be at the foot of the table,
or, more honestly, in that place that was a non-place
for tax collectors, prostitutes and the unclean in Jesus’ day
and still is a non-place
for illegal immigrants, marginalized minorities and persecuted poor today.
The name of this place is “service”.
Indeed, we can find Jesus
and be with him, on his right and on his left,
when we serve another in need,
when we care, we help and we love others selflessly.
When we
-- feed the hungry veteran on the street begging,
-- console the despairing elderly widow mourning,
-- protect the helpless teenage gang member fearing,
we meet no other than Jesus who says to us
“in so far that you did this to the least of my friends, you did it to me” (Mt 25.40b).
What is so radical about today’s Good News
is that Jesus does indeed call us to greatness
but it is greatness that involves being like him:
he who came not to be served but to serve and to give his life for others.
That Jesus calls us to do likewise
is his reminder that you and I were created to serve;
created for others; created to give them life.
It is with and through those in need of our service,
the suffering, the poor, the marginalized,
indeed for each and everyone wanting to be healed,
to be saved and to be whole,
that we will truly find Jesus in glory,
the glory of God saving all peoples.
This is the glory our Christian lives can truly hope for:
To be with God.
And this is the glory of God we can make real,
when we, with Jesus beside us,
live a life of service for the many who reach out to us in hope.
I'd like to believe that living this kind of life offers you and me
the promise of becoming much more human and a little bit more divine.
Now, isn’t service, then, a good and proper place to be with Jesus?
preached at Blessed Mother Teresa Parish, Dorchester, Boston
photo: spring in cambridge by adsj (cambridge, boston; may 2010)
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