I
hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving weekend! I continue to recover and have
mastered one of the complications and working on the second. I should be back
with you soon.
Meditation
of this Sunday’s Gospel:
Are
we leaders or followers? Do we take the first place or the last? Two of Jesus'
disciples boldly asked Jesus to promote them to first place in his kingdom. The
desire for greatness seems to be inbred in all of us. Who wants to be last or
least? Jesus did the unthinkable - he reversed the order to true greatness and
glory. If we want to be first and great, then we must place ourselves at the
disposal of others by putting their interests first and by taking on their cares
and concerns as if they were our own.
Jesus
wedded authority with unconditional love and service with total sacrifice - the
willing sacrifice of one's life for the sake of another. Authority without
sacrificial love is brutish and self-serving. Jesus also used stark language to
explain what kind of sacrifice he had in mind. His disciples must drink his cup
if they expect to reign with him in his kingdom. The cup he had in mind was a
bitter one involving crucifixion - laying down one's life even to the point of
shedding one's blood for the sake of Christ.
What
kind of cup does the Lord have in mind for each one of us? For some disciples
such a cup entails physical suffering and the painful struggle of martyrdom -
the shedding of one's blood for the sake of Christ's name. But for many of us,
it entails the long routine of the Christian life, with all its daily
sacrifices, disappointments, set-backs, struggles, and temptations. The Lord
Jesus has offered his life for our sake and he calls us to freely offer our
lives in a daily sacrifice of love and service for others. What makes such
sacrifice a joy rather than a burden is love - the kind of love which has power
to transform and change our lives and the lives of those around us. Paul the
Apostle tells us that this "love" is a pure gift "which God has poured into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us" If we allow God's love to transform our
lives, then no sacrifice will be too great or hard to make.
Please
remember that the 35th Annual Resettlement Bazaar is on November 7th from 9am –
2:30pm. Hope to see you there!
I
hope you all have a great week!
Fr. Phil
