The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today remind us that the path to fullness of life is one that is contrary to much of modern culture as the Spirit leads us to humble service.
The reading from the Letter of James warns that friendship with the World often is a Cause of Division.
* [4:1–12] The concern here is with the origin of conflicts in the Christian community. These are occasioned by love of the world, which means enmity with God (4). Further, the conflicts are bound up with failure to pray properly (cf. Mt 7:7–11; Jn 14:13; 15:7; 16:23), that is, not asking God at all or using God’s kindness only for one’s pleasure (Jas 4:2–3). In contrast, the proper dispositions are submission to God, repentance, humility, and resistance to evil (Jas 4:7–10). (James, CHAPTER 4, n.d.)
Psalm 55 is a complaint about a Friend’s Treachery.
* [Psalm 55] The psalmist, betrayed by intimate friends (Ps 55:14–15, 20–21), prays that God punish those oath breakers and thus be acknowledged as the protector of the wronged. The sufferings of the psalmist include both ostracism (Ps 55:4) and mental turmoil (Ps 55:5–6), culminating in the wish to flee society (Ps 55:7–9). The wish for a sudden death for one’s enemies (Ps 55:16) occurs elsewhere in the Psalms; an example of such a death is the earth opening under the wicked Dathan and Abiram (Nm 16:31–32). The psalmist, confident of vindication, exhorts others to a like trust in the God of justice (Ps 55:23). The Psalm is not so much for personal vengeance as for a public vindication of God’s righteousness now. There was no belief in an afterlife where such vindication could take place. (Psalms, PSALM 55 | USCCB, n.d.)
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus again foretells His Death and Resurrection and asks 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.)
Tami Whitney (2014) comments that instead of hating each other, we should be loving God, and the best way to love God is to love his people.
What better way to show God our appreciation than to appreciate and respect, even love, his creation. Loving each other, treating each other decently – even the poor, especially the poor – is the best way to have satisfaction in our lives. Those who love the lowest, least important people, those who give with no expectation of benefit, will receive the greatest benefit. The things of the world are not the most satisfying, but the love of God can satisfy all. (Whitney, n.d.)
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, n.d.)
The Word Among Us Meditation on Mark 9:30-37 comments that when we experience strong emotions that have the potential to lead us into sin, we shouldn’t be surprised or get down on ourselves. Instead, free of shame, we can acknowledge to the Lord how we are feeling and then ask for his help. In his humanity, Jesus knows exactly what we are going through. Not only is he our model for how to govern our emotions, but he gives us the grace to do it.
We don’t know if tempers flared or unkind words were said as the disciples argued. But notice that Jesus didn’t berate them for indulging in such pettiness; instead, he patiently taught them about what it means to be “first” and “last” (Mark 9:35). When we don’t know how to handle our emotions, our first instinct should be to turn to Jesus. We can always count on him to help us. As he did with the apostles, he will patiently show us the way to true greatness.
“Jesus, be my lifeline whenever my emotions threaten to overwhelm me!” (Meditation on Mark 9:30-37, n.d.)
Friar Jude Winkler notes that the passage from James speaks about the difficulties that come from our own intentions. Conversion of our thoughts through the eyes of Jesus will allow us to be less slaves of wrong intentions and more free to choose love. Friar Jude reminds us that Jesus chose children as the example of service as anawim and those who cannot pay us back.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces religious historian Diana Butler Bass who describes the intimate relationship between Jesus and the Spirit. She shares how Jesus’ Jewish followers might have understood his connection to the Spirit.
Jesus, as a Jew, would have been familiar with the idea of shekhinah, the presence of God dwelling with the world. As Amy-Jill Levine says, “Judaism has the idea of the Shekinah, the feminine presence of God descending to earth and dwelling among human beings.” [3]…
Was that not how Jesus’s first followers experienced him?… As a person inhabited by shekhinah? That he somehow was the dwelling place of God, and that there was no real conflict in the mind of his brother and sister Jews between bearing the mystery of the sacred and being fully human? And if that is who he was, is that who he still is? The presence, the wisdom, the divine dwelling with us, the feminine spirit, here and now? (Rohr, n.d.)
We ponder the paradox of the power of humility in service as the Way followers of Jesus inspired by the Spirit “renew the face of the earth.”
References
James, CHAPTER 4. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved May 21, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/james/4?1
Mark, CHAPTER 9. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved May 21, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/mark/9?
Meditation on Mark 9:30-37. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved May 21, 2024, from https://wau.org/meditations/2024/05/21/972635/
Psalms, PSALM 55 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved May 21, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/55?7
Rohr, R. (n.d.). The Spirit in Jesus. CAC Daily Meditations. Retrieved May 21, 2024, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/the-spirit-in-jesus/
Schwager, D. (n.d.). Who Is the Greatest in God's Kingdom? Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved May 21, 2024, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2024&date=may21
Whitney, T. (n.d.). Daily Reflection of Creighton University's Online Ministries. Creighton University's Online Ministries. Retrieved May 21, 2024, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/Archive/2014/022514.html
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