First Reading Commentary
From a Christian perspective, it’s relatively
easy to see Jesus as the fulfillment of this prophecy of the suffering servant. From that understanding, the words “long
life” would translate into “eternal life” as Jesus is the One Who gave His life
as an offering for sin, taking our guilt upon Himself. The sufferings of this servant would have a
redemptive value.
This must have been a difficult concept
when this message was first proclaimed.
The Jews endured much suffering and spent many hours in prayer, pleading
to God for relief; and to hear or read that their hope would be fulfilled by
yet more suffering must have seemed absurd.
Today, not even all
Christians see a value in suffering.
Sadly, some believe that suffering is caused by a lack of faith. From a Catholic point of view, our sufferings
are united with Christ's in such a way that we can offer them in union with His
redemptive work for the salvation of souls.
Second Reading Commentary
In the Old Covenant, a sacrifice required a priest and a victim. In the New and Everlasting Covenant, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was both Priest and Victim.
In the Old Covenant, a sacrifice required a priest and a victim. In the New and Everlasting Covenant, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was both Priest and Victim.
One of the many beauties of our
relationship with our Lord is that He was willing to take on our way of life by
the most humble means possible, making our ability to relate to Him much easier
because we know that He has already endured what we endure, and much more than
that. Jesus not only lived those
circumstances which tempt us and often lead us to our shortcomings, He also
took those shortcomings and failures upon Himself making it considerably easier
for us to relate to Him. Knowing that,
we can indeed, as the last verse says, "confidently approach the throne of
grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help."
Gospel Commentary
Jesus, because He is God, already knows
what James and John are about ask. This
is a lesson for us to be a people of prayer.
God is Omnipotent and Omniscient but He wants us to have that dialogue
with Him.
There’s something very alluring about greatness. Many would love to achieve it or minimally be
in the presence of it. Many young adults
have spent the night outside of an arena just so they could be one of the first
in line to buy tickets to see their favorite rock stars. At Hollywood movie premiers, look how many
people line up along the red carpet just to get a glimpse of their favorite
movie stars. Nowadays, a small fortune
is spent to go to professional sporting events to watch athletes perform
seemingly super-human feats. Mostly
what’s intriguing about greatness is the power, fame and wealth that goes along
with it. All of these forms of
greatness, however, are short-lived.
In this Gospel, James and John are looking
to achieve greatness. And the greatness
they are looking for is not exactly what Jesus had in mind. They want to sit at the right and left of
Jesus. Jesus tells them they do not know
what they are asking. They are thinking
of Jesus as the eventual Head of some sort of world government; and by sitting
at His right and left they would be considered powerful men, at least by human
standards. Their minds at this point
haven’t really grasped what greatness is in terms of the Messianic
mission.
Take a moment and think of those you would
consider to be great Christians. If you
were able to interview all of them you might find very different personalities:
some married, some single, some ordained ministers, doctors, lawyers and ditch
diggers. One common denominator,
however, that all of them would be able to share with you is the sufferings
they have endured. When you are serious about your walk with the Lord, that
walk is an extremely difficult one, with many sufferings. Suffering is an inescapable ingredient for
not only being a great Christian but also being human. With God’s grace, our acceptance of this
makes us great Christians; and this greatness is quite different, if not
opposite, of the type of greatness mentioned earlier.
In worldly terms, greatness means being
served; in Christian terms, greatness means to serve. The desire of any great Christian is to
follow in the Footsteps of Jesus Who suffered and gave His life as a ransom for
many. Great Christians have also given
their lives literally. But offering
one’s life doesn’t have to mean the death of the body. It could mean death to a way of life: a life
of immorality, untrustworthiness, greed and anything else that is contrary to
what Jesus taught. It is much easier to
give up and surrender to these immoralities since today’s world is flooded with
such things.
Much of the sufferings that Christians
endure are the temptations to give up the good fight and surrender to the ways
of the culture. But we don’t have to
fight it alone. We have our Lord and
each other.
Greatness in a worldly sense is often
single-minded and perhaps egotistical. Jesus
tells His apostles and us, His devoted followers, that among us it shall not be
so. Christianity already has One Holy
Trinity and there simply isn’t any room for the trinity of me, myself and
I. We are called to be servants and
slaves, putting the needs of others before our own. If we allow temptation to pollute our minds,
this way of life may not sound so great.
But our ultimate greatness cannot be achieved in this life; in fact, it
cannot be achieved at all by us. Our
ultimate greatness is not something we earn; rather, it is given as a gift by
the greatest One of all; and that gift is eternal joy and peace.
