Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Title

Ambition versus Service

Outline

Our readings today are as current as the latest news reports

One of our chief passions is for security and possession

But to be securely in possession we need recognition, control, and power

When we lack these, our natural response is either that of depression or envy or jealousy and “where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice.” In Family Systems we use the term “triangling” to describe this.

Now take that as your interpretive framework and see how it explains the news: the political news is at root that of two elites - Chesterton called them Hudge and Gudge - wanting to be securely on top and spewing out their vituperation of the “other” until they can outmaneuver and destroy them.

Unfortunately, the same insecurity and therefore desire to take down the other can exist within the Church, whether in the pews, in the clergy, or in the cloister - Robert Browning’s “Soliloquy in a Spanish Cloister” depicts this, even if Browning was far from a saint. The one monk destroys the more pious one’s roses and plots to destroy his soul for apparently he cannot better him in what that monastery valued.

“Let us lie in wait for the righteous one, because he is annoying to us”

Perhaps this is one reason why St Thomas Aquinas was so quiet about his inner life with God, as G K Chesterton points out.

Jesus knew about it and that is why he said to his disciples, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” They had been arguing about who was number one, the greatest. That could split the group in warring factions. He told them to receive a child, one with no honor status, one who spent his time in the women’s quarters, if they wanted to receive him.

The fact is that we have to fight our natural selves to understand Jesus

Jesus was secure, for he knew, “God will take care of him.”

Jesus was one with God, full of the wisdom from above, so he lived “pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity.”

And rather than resisting the passions of his enemies, he embraced them: “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death he will rise.” For like a martial artist who falls and rolls to flip his opponent, Jesus realized that by absorbing evil he could make life, salvation available to both his confused friends and his plotting enemies

But this is unnatural, contrary to our passions, so of course “they did not understand the saying.”

They did not understand until in the resurrection they grasped that Jesus won by denying his passions and dying for others

So, Sisters, this teaches us several things

First, we all have passions, drives, and the more conscious we are of them the better, for what is hidden can control us more easily than what is known. What impresses me about the news and about Christian organizations too is that people whitewash their passions, totally unaware of what is really controlling them.

Second, we need to recognize that to control our passions we need power from outside of us, namely the wisdom from above, or an ever-fresh infusion of the Holy Spirit. Rather that gritting my teeth and fighting my passions I reach out to God for his gifts to fill me and order my passions. Thomas Aquinas knew this that ordering took divine filling.

Third, rather than rejecting the enemy, those of no account, the “child” in Jesus’ world, we follow Jesus in being willing to die for them, to bear their pain with Jesus for only that will bring life in them.

Sisters, the USA has chosen the way of power and control, whether covert or overt and has not done well in any of the 70+ covert or overt conflicts it has fought since WWII.

The church or parts of the church has also tried the way or conflict, power and party-spirit to win in some of its goals - including such admirable ones as the preservation of life - and I am suspect that trumpeted gains are the prelude to great falls, including the continued exodus of youth.

We need to pray for that wisdom from above that will empower us to die with Jesus, to die for those we view as our enemies, for only in that way can we break the cycle and bring them to life, a life that will accomplish, maybe not our goals, but God’s goals, which in the end surpass all we can ask or imagine.

Readings

Catholic Daily Readings 9-19-2021: Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

FIRST READING

Wisdom of Solomon 2:12, 17–20

12 Let us lie in wait for the righteous one, because he is annoying to us;

he opposes our actions,

Reproaches us for transgressions of the law

and charges us with violations of our training.

17 Let us see whether his words be true;

let us find out what will happen to him in the end.

18 For if the righteous one is the son of God, God will help him

and deliver him from the hand of his foes.

19 With violence and torture let us put him to the test

that we may have proof of his gentleness

and try his patience.

20 Let us condemn him to a shameful death;

for according to his own words, God will take care of him.”

Catholic Daily Readings 9-19-2021: Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

RESPONSE

Psalm 54:6b

6 God is present as my helper;

the Lord sustains my life.

PSALM

Psalm 54:3–8

3 O God, by your name save me.

By your strength defend my cause.

4 O God, hear my prayer.

Listen to the words of my mouth.

5 Strangers have risen against me;

the ruthless seek my life;

they do not keep God before them.

Selah

6 God is present as my helper;

the Lord sustains my life.

7 Turn back the evil upon my foes;

in your faithfulness, destroy them.

8 Then I will offer you generous sacrifice

and give thanks to your name, LORD, for it is good.

Catholic Daily Readings 9-19-2021: Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

SECOND READING

James 3:16–4:3

16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice. 17 But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity. 18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those who cultivate peace.

CHAPTER 4

1 Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from? Is it not from your passions that make war within your members? 2 You covet but do not possess. You kill and envy but you cannot obtain; you fight and wage war. You do not possess because you do not ask. 3 You ask but do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

Catholic Daily Readings 9-19-2021: Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

2 Thessalonians 2:14

14 To this end he has [also] called you through our gospel to possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

GOSPEL

Mark 9:30–37

30 They left from there and began a journey through Galilee, but he did not wish anyone to know about it. 31 He was teaching his disciples and telling them, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death he will rise.” 32 But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to question him.

33 They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house, he began to ask them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” 34 But they remained silent. They had been discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest. 35 Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” 36 Taking a child he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it he said to them, 37 “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.”

Notes

Catholic Daily Readings 9-19-2021: Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2021 | ORDINARY TIME

TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

YEAR B | ROMAN MISSAL | LECTIONARY

First Reading Wisdom of Solomon 2:12, 17–20

Response Psalm 54:6b

Psalm Psalm 54:3–8

Second Reading James 3:16–4:3

Gospel Acclamation 2 Thessalonians 2:14

Gospel Mark 9:30–37

GREEN