The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to examine our attitude and position of privilege as the Spirit prompts us to fullness of life through humility, patience, and love.
The reading from the Book of Sirach outlines duties towards God.
* [2:1–11] Serving the Lord is not without its trials (v. 1); but no matter what happens, the genuine believer will remain sincere, steadfast, and faithful (vv. 2–3). Misfortune and humiliation are means of purification to prove one’s worth (vv. 4–5). Ben Sira believed that patience and unwavering trust in God are ultimately rewarded with the benefits of God’s mercy and of lasting joy (vv. 6–11). (Sirach, CHAPTER 2, n.d.)
Psalm 37 is an exhortation to Patience and Trust.
* [Psalm 37] The Psalm responds to the problem of evil, which the Old Testament often expresses as a question: why do the wicked prosper and the good suffer? The Psalm answers that the situation is only temporary. God will reverse things, rewarding the good and punishing the wicked here on earth. The perspective is concrete and earthbound: people’s very actions place them among the ranks of the good or wicked. Each group or “way” has its own inherent dynamism—eventual frustration for the wicked, eventual reward for the just. The Psalm is an acrostic, i.e., each section begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Each section has its own imagery and logic. (Psalms, PSALM 37, n.d.)
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus again foretells His Death and Resurrection and addresses who Is the Greatest?
* [9:33–37] Mark probably intends this incident and the sayings that follow as commentary on the disciples’ lack of understanding (Mk 9:32). Their role in Jesus’ work is one of service, especially to the poor and lowly. Children were the symbol Jesus used for the anawim, the poor in spirit, the lowly in the Christian community. (Mark, CHAPTER 9, n.d.)
Kimberly Grassmeyer was a bit embarrassed to learn that the Greatest Of All Time acronym (GOAT) was at work! It seems the term is used daily - athletics, music, engineering, investing (Warren, anyone??)... all across the cultural spectrum.
And so our Christ, all-knowing and kind, provided a simple lesson that we likely remember well from our young days in Sunday School. Even though all of us are special and precious in the eyes of God, none of us is more special or more precious than the next. A small child, received by Christ, exemplified that if we open ourselves to such a child, we open ourselves to God. It is through humility and service that we become "first" to God. Using the powerful words from the first reading, we must be steadfast, patient, sincere of heart and standing in justice, humble, and trusting, among other qualities. (Grassmeyer, 2023)
Don Schwager quotes “Downward roots enable upward growth,” by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
"Observe a tree, how it first tends downwards, that it may then shoot forth upwards. It fastens its root low in the ground, that it may send forth its top towards heaven. Is it not from humility that it endeavors to rise? But without humility it will not attain to higher things (Proverbs 18:12). You are wanting to grow up into the air without a root. Such is not growth, but a collapse." (excerpt from THE GOSPEL OF JOHN, SERMON 38.2) (Schwager, 2022)
The Word Among Us Meditation on Mark 9:30-37 comments that the Spirit opened the eyes of the disciples to understand what Jesus had done for them. And he enabled them to live as Jesus did, to give and share and love and serve. He gave them the grace to become willing to put other people before themselves, whether by selling their property to provide for the needy or by caring for widows (Acts 4:32-35; 6:1-4). Smaller choices like those led to the bigger ones that enabled them to lay down their lives for their faith.
Just like the disciples, you will have opportunities to think of someone else’s needs before your own and serve them, even if it means giving up your time or comfort. Remember what the disciples learned and do what they did: follow Jesus’ example through the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit. Humbly receive the grace to choose to be last of all and servant of all.
“Lord, give me a servant’s heart!” (Meditation on Mark 9:30-37, n.d.)
Friar Jude Winkler comments that we choose the way of the Lord in the good things and adversity of our journey. Standing in awe of the Lord, often described as “fear”, is an attitude to purify our impulses. Friar Jude reminds us of Jesus' reference to Daniel 7 and the Songs of the Suffering Servant as we are taught to serve those from whom we have no expectation of return.
Brian McLaren describes how Jesus centers love as the path for us to follow.
Of the many radical things said and done by Jesus, his unflinching emphasis on love was most radical of all. Love was the greatest commandment, … his prime directive—love for God, for self, for neighbor, for stranger, for alien, for outsider, for outcast, and even for enemy, as he himself modeled. (McLaren, 2023)
Theologian Norman Wirzba finds inspiration in the story of Óscar Romero’s conversion to deeper love. In the sermon just preached [minutes before his assassination], Romero had said that Christ’s gospel teaches that:
One must not love oneself so much as to avoid getting involved in the risks of life that history demands of us, and that those who try to fend off the danger will lose their lives, while those who out of love for Christ give themselves to the service of others will live, like the grain of wheat that dies, but only apparently. If it did not die, it would remain alone. The harvest comes about only because it dies, allowing itself to be sacrificed in the earth and destroyed. Only by undoing itself does it produce the harvest [see John 12:24]. [2] (McLaren, 2023)
We are living in a culture that focuses great attention on the G.O.A.T.’s in tension with our experience of the richness of life in humble service modelled by Jesus of the anawim of today.
References
Grassmeyer, K. (2023, February 21). Creighton U. Daily Reflection. Online Ministries. Retrieved February 21, 2023, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/022123.html
Mark, CHAPTER 9. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved February 21, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/mark/9?
McLaren, B. (2023, February 21). A Deeper Way of Love — Center for Action and Contemplation. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved February 21, 2023, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/a-deeper-way-of-love-2023-02-21/
Meditation on Mark 9:30-37. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved February 21, 2023, from https://wau.org/meditations/2023/02/21/614639/
Psalms, PSALM 37. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved February 21, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/37?3
Schwager, D. (2022, August 10). Who Is the Greatest in God's Kingdom? Daily Scripture net. Retrieved February 21, 2023, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2023&date=feb21
Sirach, CHAPTER 2. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved February 21, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/sirach/2?1
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