29th Sunday of Ordinary time: 2024 Year B

Mark 10:35-45 "whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all."

Who is of greater standing/authority, the parents or a child? The parent surely and yet it is the parent who is the slave. The parent, like a slave, works for their child without receiving payment from the child. They provide everything for the child, clothing, shelter, food, education, moral support, etc. “whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant;” Greatness is not in power to enslave others or in riches living a life of leisure. Psalm 49:20; A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish.

Gloria in Profundis (Chesterton)

There has fallen on earth for a token A god too great for the sky He has burst out of all things and broken The bounds of eternity: Into time and the terminal land He has strayed like a thief or a lover, For the wine of the world brims over, Its splendour is spilt on the sand.

Who is proud when the heavens are humble, Who mounts if the mountains fall, If the fixed suns topple and tumble And a deluge of love drown all - Who rears up his head for a crown, Who holds up his will for a warrant, Who strives with the starry torrent When all that is good goes down?

For in dread of such falling and failing The Fallen Angels fell Inverted in insolence, scaling The hanging mountain of hell: But unmeasured of plummet and rod Too deep for their sight to scan, Outrushing the fall of man Is the height of the fall of God.

Glory to God in the Lowest The spout of the stars in spate Where the thunderbolt thinks to be slowest And the lightning fears to be late: As men dive for a sunken gem Pursuing, we hunt and hound it, The fallen star that has found it In the cavern of Bethlehem.

“A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.” C.S. Lewis

St. André Bessette’s (brother). He was not well educated and he was very sickly. He was not a priest, he was only a simple brother. His superior of the novitiate said, when St Andre was only beginning his life consecrated to God in the order of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, his superior said to him, “you are too uneducated to teach and you are too sickly to work. What can you do?”. To that St Andre answered, ‘I can pray.’ He was assigned the humble task of doorkeeper, a role often given to those deemed incapable of other real duties. He did the humblest of jobs without complaint. Many of his fellow brothers saw him as a burden rather than a blessing due to his constant illnesses and lack of formal education.

Pope John Paul II said, "In each age the Holy Spirit raises up such humble witnesses of the Gospel." Brother André was a man of his age, who carried forward Christ’s message of love. St. André Bessette was one of the greatest healers the Catholic Church has produced among her saints. Through the prayers of St Andre it is estimated that at least 10,000 miracles were worked. True Greatness is not measured by our achievements or physical strength and skill but measured by our closeness to Him who is truly great, our closeness to and our love of God.