September 18, 2009
Sunday Scripture
Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
BY FATHER DONALD DILGER
Here Mark begins a section of the gospel called “The Journey to Jerusalem.” He describes Jesus’ final tour of Galilee, his home province and the center of his one-year ministry. That’s all the time Mark will allow for Jesus’ ministry, as also Luke and Matthew do because they copy from Mark. John’s version has a public ministry of Jesus lasting from two and one-half to three years or more, much of it in Jerusalem instead of Galilee. This may well be more accurate historically. Mark can get by with this because he is not writing a biography or history of Jesus but a catechism.
The journey to Jerusalem will end in the arrest, torture, crucifixion and death of Jesus. Mark does not leave his readers and hearers without hope. At the beginning of the chapter in which the tragic journey begins, Mark places the transfiguration of Jesus. In doing this he reminds us that the journey actually does not end in the death of Jesus, but in the resurrection. Thus another so-called “Marcan Sandwich,” — the difficulty of the journey is sandwiched between two scenes of glory, the transfiguration and the resurrection. But as we join Mark (or Jesus and his disciples) in the difficult journey, we must absorb and accept the difficult teachings that Mark places within the framework of the journey.
Jesus’ first statement sets the tone, “Jesus was teaching . . . them, ‘The Son of Man is to be handed over to men, and they will kill him, and three days after his death, the Son of Man will rise.’” Tragedy and glory are set before us. Will we follow? The disciples remain clueless about this statement, as clueless as they usually are depicted by Mark. The story that Mark now adds tells us just how “out of it” the disciples of Jesus were, at least in Mark’s version of events. Disciples usually did not walk with their teacher, but slightly behind him. There they could discuss matters, serious or silly, which bothered them. We may see here the first “clergy support group.”
Jesus asked them what were they arguing about en route, or as Mark likes to remind us, “on the journey.” They were silent (and ashamed). They were discussing who was greatest among them. Jesus sat down. This nonsense (of power-hungry clergy?) had to be dealt with now. He called the Twelve to himself and said to them, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” For “servant,” Mark uses the Greek word diakonos, the origin of our word “deacon.” Based on this statement of the Marcan Jesus, we can say that every Christian is called to this kind of deaconate. The Twelve however represent not only all Christians being taught in this episode, but especially those who are the primary successors of the apostles. Manipulation and scheming for power among clergy of various degrees is not unknown even in our time. Cardinal Ratzinger himself, now Benedict XVI, pointed this out some years ago.
Jesus illustrates the statement about being servant. He places a child among them. He embraces the child, and says, “Whoever receives one such child as this one in my name, receives me. Whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.” Meaning: the child is a symbol of the lowliest, the people of the humblest status in society, the poor, the sick, the jobless. Thus the leaders of the Church are told by Mark’s gospel today that their primary concern is to serve the poor. But not to forget, this teaching extends to every genuine Christian. “So faith by itself, if it has not works, is dead,” James 2:17.
The unknown author of this literary work constructs a monologue attributed to “the wicked.” They are determined to persecute “the just one.” The book comes to us from first century B.C. Egypt, from an environment similar to the “New Age” of our time. It is written to and for the Jewish community of Alexandria. Even leading Jews denied their ancestral faith. The author seems to have been persecuted by such apostates, as he depicts them saying, “He charges us with violations of our upbringing.” They plan to hand the “just one” over to authorities for torture and execution, to see if God will take care of him. Christians found in these words “predictions” of the sufferings of Jesus. This reading was chosen for today’s liturgy because it echoes Jesus’ words about his own suffering and death in our gospel reading.
This down to earth homilist of the late first Christian century might just as well be speaking to Catholic parishes today. He speaks of jealousy, ambition, disorder, then contrasts it to the way things should be among Christians — peace, gentleness, cooperation, compassion, not keeping one’s word, hypocrisy. As Jesus would say, “Those who have ears to hear, let them hear!” James asks, “Where do conflicts among you come from?” He begins, “You covet . . .!” What they covet can be summed up in one word, power. Jesus frequently condemned arrogance and the lust for power over others.