The Catholic Calendar for Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent
Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Jeremiah 18:18-20
Psalm 31:5-6, 14-16
Matthew 20:17-28
A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:
Today's gospel shows us clearly just how different Jesus' message and calling was from what the people expected and from what we call human nature. As parents, we all want our children to excel, move forward, stand at the front of the class and receive glowing recognition for all they do. This certainly seems to be natural for parents and we do a good job at it. So, it should be no surprise to hear today that the mother of the sons of Zebedee should try and persuade the Lord to give her sons special places in the Kingdom. Given the political climate and the idea of what she most likely thought the Messiah would be, this is just another case of mom pushing her kids forward. She was probably expecting the Kingdom to be a political device with military might that would throw the Roman occupiers from her country and bring Israel back to total power. Oh, how wrong this was!
Jesus, knowing what was ahead, forewarned His followers that they would share in the glory of this new Kingdom. But little did they know that this glory, or "cup" as our Lord stated, would consist of persecution, exile, torture and death. How different was Jesus' message! There would be no high political office with all its power and wealth. There would be no defeat of the Romans and other enemies of Israel. Rather, there would be years of hardship, service and sacrifice in the building of this Kingdom, the new church. Even today some have a very difficult time with this message and dismiss Christianity outright; it is simply that hard a message, since the expectation for the Kingdom is no different than today. As Jesus said, the person who wants to be first must be last, something that seems contrary to our human nature.
- Don Claunch, SFO
(dlclaunch at bresnan dot net)
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posted by joachim at 4:26 AM