XXXI Sunday of the Year

THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT

Deuteronomy 6:2-6; Hebrews 7:23-28; Mark 12:28b-34

Readings for the XXXI Sunday of the Year

In a cartoon strip, Frank and Ernest are standing in front of rows of shelves of books. The sign on top of one of the shelves reads: “Law Library.” Franks tells Ernest: “It’s frightening when you think that we started out with just Ten Commandments.” 

It is frightening! The Jews started out with Ten Commandments and ended up with 613 (there are 1752 codes in our Canon Law)! 

There were two tendencies in Judaism: one expanded the law into many regulations; the other gathered the law into one summary sentence. Further, there were two schools of thought: one believed there were lighter and weightier matters of the law, and one could prioritize; the other held that all principles – even the smallest – were equally important and binding. Hence, the question the scribe asked in the gospel passage was a living issue in Jewish circles. 

Jesus’ response gathers up the scripture of Israel in one statement. 

He quotes the creed of Judaism, the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:2-6, first reading): “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” Alongside this creed, Jesus places another passage (Leviticus 19:18): “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” For Jesus, it is a combination of these texts that makes the summary and the essence of the law; religion is loving GOD and loving people. 

The scribe, pleased with Jesus’ reply, makes a pertinent point: such love is better than all ritual sacrifices. But it is always easier to let ritual take the place of love; it is easier to let worship become a matter of the church building instead of a matter of one’s whole life.

 

Jesus loved God and people totally. 

How am I going to imitate Jesus in the week ahead? How shall I love my God with my whole being? How shall I love my neighbour as myself?

PS: G.K. Chesterton said that the great lesson of Beauty and the Beast is that a person must be loved before he/she is loveable. Unless we feel loved, we cannot love. Just as abused children grow up to become abusers, loved children grow up to become loving adults. God loves and accepts us “just as we are”. Therefore, we can love and accept ourselves and in so doing, love and accept others.

XXX Sunday of the Year

LORD, I WANT TO SEE

Jeremiah 31:7-9; Hebrews 5:1-6; Mark 10:46-52

Readings for the XXX Sunday of the Year

In Pastor Steven Albertin’s office, hung a modern picture, a maze of colours and shapes. He knew this picture contained some profound artistic message but was unable to figure it out. 

One day, Adam, a kindergartener, came to his office, saw the picture, and asked: “Do you see what I see?” The pastor asked: “Do you see something in that picture? I don’t.” “Pastor, can’t you see Jesus hanging on the cross?”

The pastor stared at the picture, tried to find the image of the crucified Jesus hidden in the maze, but couldn’t. Slowly Adam moved his finger along the picture: “There, Pastor, is Jesus’ face, his arms outstretched on the cross.” The image began to appear. There hidden behind the colours and the shapes was the image of the crucified Jesus. 

Adam helped a “blind” pastor to see the suffering messiah.

Like Pastor Albertin, many of us fail to see Jesus in the maze of colours and shapes in our lives, in the suffering in our lives and around us. We need help to see him and to make sense of suffering.

In this Sunday’s gospel, Jesus helps blind Bartimaeus see! 

This healing appears at the end of the section on discipleship in mark’s gospel, in which the theme is suffering. Jesus thrice predicts his passion and death; each time his disciples fail to understand the meaning of suffering in his mission. They are blind. For instance, in the verses preceding this text, Jesus makes the third prediction, and James and John ask to sit beside him in his glory.

Mark uses the healing of Bartimaeus as a device to open the eyes of the disciples to the meaning of suffering. Mark contrasts the disciples with the blind beggar. Jesus puts the same question to Bartimaeus that he put to James and John: “What do you want me to do for you?” James and John wanted to advance themselves; Bartimaeus asks only to see.

Before the encounter with Jesus, Bartimaeus is blind, sitting, on the side of the way. After his encounter, he sees, gets up, and follows Jesus on the way to Jerusalem. Bartimaeus has understood the meaning of suffering in the life of Jesus and of a disciple. He is the paradigm of the ideal disciple.

Like Pastor Albertin in the story, like the disciples of Jesus, we fail to see Jesus as the suffering Messiah, we fail to understand that suffering is an essential part of discipleship. Like Bartimaeus, we sit by the side of the road of life and struggle to make sense of suffering. 

May we, like Bartimaeus, recognize Jesus passing by the way, and call out to him to heal us. May we cast off our cloaks, our false securities and follow Jesus on the way… because it is the only way to life.

XXIX Sunday of the Year

TRUE GREATNESS

Isaiah 53:10-11; Hebrews 4:14-16; Mark 10:35-45

Readings for the XXIX Sunday of the Year

When India became independent, the Defence Minister offered to make General Nathu Singh Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army. He declined stating that General K. M. Cariappa was senior to him and more eligible for the post. The Minister then offered the position to General Rajendrasinhji Jadeja; he, too, declined for the same reason. On 15 January 1949, General Cariappa became the first Indian Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army.

Generals Singh and Jadeja knew that what matters is not where you sit, but where and how you serve. That is what Jesus teaches his disciples in the gospel… again!

James and John ask Jesus for places of honour in his kingdom. The episode continues the theme of discipleship in the Marcan gospel. Recall that in the two chapters before this Jesus has consistently challenged his disciples with the core values of the kingdom: they are to become like children, like servants; to give up all attachments; to be willing to take up their cross and follow – all this in the context of the passion predictions. After the third prediction, James and John ask for special status. Jesus is patient with them and points out that they will share his cross and his resurrection but the glory they seek is not his to give. 

The other ten are indignant, perhaps, because the brothers beat them to the bargaining spot. Jesus instructs them again that the exercise of power in his kingdom is radically different from the exercise of power in earthly realms; that he calls them to greatness through humble service. Their model is Jesus himself. John in his gospel conveys the same message through Jesus’ servile act of washing the feet of his disciples.

The first reading, which is the fourth servant song, gives us another aspect of servant leadership: suffering. 

In the kingdom of God, true greatness comes through service and suffering.

Do I understand Jesus’ teaching on discipleship or do I clamour for position and power? Am I willing to be serve and to be “the slave of all”?

Albert Schweitzer wrote: “I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found a way to serve.” May we find happiness in service and suffering.