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29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

October 20, 2024

Fr. John Colacino C.PP.S.

Introit

Collect

Almighty ever-living God,
grant that we may always conform our will to yours
and serve your majesty in sincerity of heart.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Reading Is 53:10-11

The servant of the Lord has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. 10 It was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain. When you make his life an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days; through him the will of the Lord shall prosper. 11 Out of his anguish he shall see light; he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge. The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 33:4-5,18-19,20,22

R/. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.

Second Reading Heb 4:14-16

Since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Alleluia Mk 10:45

Gospel Mk 10:35-45

James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to Jesus and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” 36 And Jesus said to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?” 37 And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” 38 But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” 39 They replied, “We are able.” Then Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; 40 but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” 41 When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. 42 So Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. 43 But it is not so among you; whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. 45 For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Catena Nova

Lord God Almighty, Father of your blessed and beloved child Jesus Christ, through whom we have received knowledge of you, God of angels and hosts and all creation, and of the whole race of the upright who live in your presence: I bless you that you have thought me worthy of this day and hour, to be numbered among the martyrs and share in the cup of Christ, for resurrection to eternal life, for soul and body in the incorruptibility of the Holy Spirit. Among them may I be accepted before you today, as a rich and acceptable sacrifice, just as you, the faithful and true God, have prepared and foreshown and brought about. (St. Polycarp of Smyrna).

You see that what the two brothers wanted was to be first, greatest, and highest: rulers, one might almost say, of the others. So, revealing their secret thoughts, Jesus put a curb on this ambition, saying: “Whoever wants to be first among you must become the servant of all” ....This is what will make you illustrious and far-famed. The fact is that before the incarnation and self-abasement of Christ the whole world was in a state of ruin and decay, but when he humbled himself he lifted the world up. He annulled the curse, put an end to death, opened paradise, destroyed sin, flung wide the gates of heaven, and introduced there the first fruits of our race. He filled the world with faith in God, drove out error, restored truth, caused our first fruits to ascend a royal throne, and gained innumerable blessings beyond the power of myself or anyone else to describe in words. (St. John Chrysostom).

Christ came in humility – He, the Creator, was created amongst us, He made us but He was made for us. God before time began, man in time, He delivered man from time. This great physician has come to heal our cancer… by His example, He has come to heal pride itself. This is what we must give our attention to, in the Lord – let us consider His humility, drink the cup of His humility, clasp Him, contemplate Him. How easy it is to have elevated thoughts, easy to take pleasure in honours, easy to give one’s ear to flatterers and people who praise us. But to bear with insult, patiently undergo humiliation, pray for those who persecute us – that is the Lord’s cup, that is the Lord’s feast (St Augustine of Hippo).

Jesus knew well how tyrannical the ambitious can become and what great damage this can cause—not only to human beings but to angels.... Don’t long for a first place in this life, as the two apostles did. Like the wild grass it withers quickly and is gone....What we should do is drink the Lord’s cup and freely carry the cross.... What does it mean to drink the cup of the Lord? St. Jerome tells us that it means dying to our personal longings and wants, and to this world’s, and leading an innocent life with Christ and like Christ. Listen to Christ’s promise. “To the one who overcomes as I have overcome I will give a place on my throne just as I have a place on my Father’s throne”. To God and to his Christ be glory and honor though endless ages. Following Christ and giving God glory is our task. That is how we turn the world upside down so all can be the Kingdom of God (Fr. Alonso de Orozco).

Come and drink of the chalice the Lord the Lord offers you; it is full of so delicious a draught that once you have touched it to your lips you will want to drain the cup. Come; here you will find the way that leads to true sorrow of soul, to the holy anguish of zeal which is no longer a penance but a grace. Come, come to rest on the sacred tree of the Cross; come, under its crimsoned boughs, take your delight and feed on its fruit; come and hide from the pursuit of the enemy of salvation; come and see from experience how sweet and light is the Lord’s yoke. (Ven. Catherine Aurelia Caouette).

Many people feel cursed-cursed by God with illnesses, losses, handicaps, and misfortunes. They believe their cup doesn’t carry any blessings.... And we, looking at the horrors that plague our world, are saying, “How can there be a loving God when all this is happening? It must be a cruel, spiteful God who allows human beings to suffer so much!” Jesus, however, took upon himself all this suffering and lifted it up on the cross, not as a curse but as a blessing. Jesus made the cup of God’s wrath into a cup of blessings. That’s the mystery of the Eucharist. Jesus died for us so that we may live. He poured out his blood for us so that we may find new life. He gave himself away for us, so that we can live in community He became for us food and drink so that we can be fed for everlasting life. That is what Jesus meant when he took the cup and said: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood poured out for you” (Luke 22:20). The Eucharist is that sacred mystery through which what we lived as a curse, we now live as a blessing…. When we lift the cup of our life and share with one another our sufferings and joys in mutual vulnerability, the new covenant can become visible among us. The surprise of it all is that it is often the least among us who reveal to us that our cup is a cup of blessings (Henri Nouwen).

The way of service is the most effective antidote against the disease of seeking first place; it is the medicine for status seekers, this seeking first place, which infects many human contexts, and does not even spare Christians, the People of God, nor even the ecclesiastical hierarchy. Therefore, as disciples of Christ, let us receive this Gospel passage as a call to conversion, in order to witness with courage and generosity a Church that bows at the feet of the least, in order to serve them with love and simplicity. (Pope Francis).

Homily

It was thirty-three years ago this month when I left for Rome to further my studies. Far from being some covert attempt at ecclesiastical preferment, the reason I was sent was to help revitalize my community's original charism of preaching. But I did see a lot of “crozier climbers” when I got to Rome. They seemed to have a certain studied “look” about them – uniform hair styles, tailored cassocks, and a preference for the Gregorian University. (I attended the Angelicum). Many had an air of superiority about them. After all, the seminarians who were housed at the North American College had a better than average chance of becoming bishops and this was the place to “network” and to cultivate “padroni.” I’ve heard tell of one eventual bishop who already purchased his miter and crozier while a student in Rome as a kind of “hope chest.”

Against such travesties, of course, lies the episode in today’s gospel when James and John sought advancement in the Kingdom of God over their fellow apostles. Jesus’ response was memorable, even if observed more in the breach when it comes to church leadership: Whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all (G).

That’s one reason some people are placing high hopes on the Synod of Bishops whose second session has been meeting in Rome this month. Some have called it the “biggest consultation exercise in human history.” I myself likened it to an unofficial “fifth session of the Second Vatican Council” – a long overdue reboot of the council’s vision of the church as the People of God, co-equal and co-responsible.

This certainly seems to be the driving force behind Pope’s Francis’ ambitious project and, in particular, the long history of clerical dominance in the life of the church. For example, addressing last year's session he remarked how,

When ministers go too far in their service and mistreat the people of God, they disfigure the face of the Church with machismo and dictatorial attitudes…. Either the Church is the faithful people of God on a journey, saints and sinners, or she ends up being a business offering a variety of services. And when pastoral ministers take this second path, the Church becomes a supermarket of salvation, and priests, mere employees of a multinational company. This is the great defeat to which clericalism leads us — with great sorrow and scandal (it is enough to go into the ecclesiastical tailor shops in Rome to see the scandal of young priests trying on cassocks and hats, or albs and lace robes). Clericalism is a scourge, it is a blow. It is a form of worldliness that defiles and damages the face of the Lord’s bride; it enslaves the holy, faithful people of God. And the people of God, the holy, faithful people of God, go forward patiently and humbly, enduring the scorn, mistreatment and marginalization of institutionalized clericalism. How naturally we speak of the princes of the Church, or of episcopal promotions as getting ahead career-wise! The horrors of the world, the worldliness that mistreats God’s holy and faithful people" (October 25, 2023).

Of course, this is nothing new for him. Unlike many of the bishops who went home from Vatican II to resume "business as usual" with some cosmetic changes in the offing especially with regard to the liturgy, Francis was of a different sort. While not himself present at the Council — he was made a bishop in 1992 — in his own words, he

breathed an ecclesial climate that enthusiastically absorbed and made its own the theological, ecclesial and spiritual intuitions of the council and inculturated and implemented them....The council became the horizon of our belief, our language and our praxis, that is, it soon became our ecclesial and pastoral ecosystem....Quite simply, the council had entered into our way of being Christians and of being church, and throughout my life, my intuitions, perceptions and spirituality were simply generated by the suggestions of the doctrine of Vatican II” (Siblings All, Sign of the Times: The Social Teaching of Pope Francis).

Can such enthusiasm be sustained once the Synod delegates head home? Time will tell. If history is any guide, Francis, much like Pope John XXII who convoked the Council, will likely need a successor like Pope Paul VI to undertake the task of fulfilling his stated first goal of the Synod: namely, to move “not occasionally but structurally towards a synodal Church.” Yet it’s precisely the church’s entrenched structures that often prevent this. Catholics might be surprised to learn that while the office of Bishop of Rome and the College of Bishops in communion with him is constitutive of the church, structures like the Roman Curia, the Vatican City State, its diplomatic corps, the College of Cardinals, national conferences of bishops, chanceries, and other corporate organs are not.

And if the church were to renounce all pretensions to power, privilege and prestige in civil society in favor of penitence, poverty and persecution, then it might just fulfill what Francis, quoting one of the great influencers at Vatican II, Fr. Yves Congar, saw as the challenge: “There is no need to create another Church, but to create a different Church.” Or in his gloss on that statement, “a Church open to the newness that God wants to suggest.... [to] keep us from becoming a ‘museum Church’, beautiful but mute, with much past and little future” (October 10, 2023). Amen.

Intercessions (Joe Milner; The Sunday Website)

For the Church: that we embrace both the dying and the rising in our daily lives and grow into a fuller sharing of new life in Christ.

For the grace of to bear affliction: that God will strengthen us in the face of trial and hardship so that we may remain faithful disciples each day.

For all who exercise authority: that they may use their authority to free those who are unjustly restrained, call forth the gifts of others, and lead others to wholeness and service.

For all who are oppressed: that God will bring refugees and victims of war to safety, help them find shelter, food and medical care, and inspire many of us to help lift their burdens through our efforts and resources.

For all with mental or emotional illness: that God will grant them strength, guide them to life-giving resources, and help them to live life fully.

For all who are caught in human trafficking: that God will free them, heal their wounds, and restore them to their loved ones.

For all who are recovering from storms, floods and other natural disasters: that God will relieve their suffering, ease their fears, and give them strength to move forward.

For greater awareness of the fragility of earth: that God will help us to be good stewards of the earth and work to preserve it for future generations.

Most glorious God, in Jesus you show us that your will is to save. Grant to us your people the boldness to desire a place in your kingdom, the courage to drink the cup of suffering, and the grace to find in service the glory you promise. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. (ICEL; 1998)

Offertory Chant

Offertory Hymn

For I have come, not to be served, but to serve;

to give my life.

If you wish to be the first,

you must seek to be a servant of all.

Can you drink the cup that I must drink;

are you willing?

Can you be baptized like I have been baptized?

Are you able?

For I have come….

For to sit at my right hand or at my left,

is not for me to give.

But for those for whom is has been prepared,

it will be given.

Communion Antiphon

Closing Hymn

Christ is the one who calls,
the one who loved and came,
to whom by right it falls
to bear the highest Name:
and still today
our hearts are stirred
to hear his word
and walk his way.

Christ is the one who seeks,
to whom our souls are known.
The word of love he speaks
can wake a heart of stone;
for at that sound
the blind can see,
the slave is free,
the lost are found.

Christ is the one who died,
forsaken and betrayed;
who, mocked and crucified,
the price of pardon paid.
Our dying Lord,
what grief and loss,
what bitter cross,
our souls restored!

Christ is the one who rose
in glory from the grave,
to share his life with those
whom once he died to save.
He drew death’s sting
and broke its chains,
who lives and reigns,
our risen King.

Christ is the one who sends,
his story to declare;
who calls his servants friends
and gives them news to share.
His truth proclaim
in all the earth,
his matchless worth
and saving Name.

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