29th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B (Isaiah 53:10-11 Hebrews 4:14-16 Mark 10: 35-45)
Theme: Jesus our model
The church celebrates mission Sunday on this 29th Sunday of the Year. This is an opportunity to remind us that we are all called to be missionaries; by evangelizing the world. This mandate was given to us by Jesus himself. Let us begin by evangelizing ourselves before taking it to others. It is a call to witness to the Good News of Christ in our daily lives. Remember, it begins with you!
The readings remind us that we have a supreme high priest who has walked the path that we are walking at the moment and was victorious. As such, he knows through and through what we are going through at any given point in time in our journey of life. However, one thing that is worthy of note is the fact that sometimes our actions does not truly reflect that we know that we have a supreme high priest who is capable of coming to terms with the realities around us, the challenges that we face and with all that is going on in our lives at any given point in time. If we do, it will go a long way to help us in our relationship with God and in our quest for power like we see from today’s gospel reading.
Human quest for power started a long time ago, even amongst the Apostles of Jesus. James and John want to take the two most important places so to say, by the side of Jesus. However, Jesus uses that wonderful opportunity to teach the two brothers and the other Apostles what matters most. Jesus makes it explicitly clear that what matters most is service to humanity- service to our brothers and sisters. Being a leader that serves is what Jesus requires most from us, that is what Jesus requests of us. So we are called as people of God, we are called as children of God, to live a life of service even as leaders wherever we find ourselves. We are leaders, yes, but we are servant-leaders. That is something that is unique, that is something that should be peculiar to us as children of God and as people of God. Just like Jesus, our leadership style should always be for service, not for oppression or personal enrichment.
This is the leadership model of Jesus and that is what is expected from us as followers of Christ. We are all called to emulate Christ in all that we do as his followers. That is why my brothers and sisters on this twenty-ninth Sunday, our liturgy encourages us to go after the things that are important, things that are necessary, things that matters most and will help us attain salvation at the end of our earthly pilgrimage. Our quest and desire for power and authority like the people of the world will not take us far. They will only bring acclamations but they will not take us to salvation at the end of time. Our quest and desire should always be modelled after that of Jesus.
That way, we can make our way to heaven and we can also help others to attain heaven at the end of our earthly pilgrimage. Today’s liturgy my brothers and sisters, is a call for us as people of God to reshape our understanding of our call to discipleship. To be a disciple of Christ is to be like God himself. It is to strive to do that which is pleasing to him and to live a life that is worthy of our calling as his children.
Dearly beloved in Christ, we are all encouraged to strive to be true Disciples of Christ wherever we find ourselves in life. Our quest should not be for power and authority like James and John. Our quest should always be to do that which is pleasing to God at all times. The more we strive to do that which is pleasing to God the better persons we will become and the more we will impact positively in the lives of all those who encounter us. May God grant us the grace to live the life that is worthy of our calling as children of God at all times. Peace be with you.