Tuesday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Saint Bernardine of Siena, Priest

Biographical Information about St. Bernardine of Siena


Readings from Tuesday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time[1][2]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible

Commentary:

Reading 1 James 4:1-10

There is a nice summary for this reading in the NAB footnotes: “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 Matthew 7:7-11; John 14:13; 15:7; 16:23), that is, not asking God at all or using God's kindness only for one's pleasure (James 4:2-3). In contrast, the proper dispositions are submission to God, repentance, humility, and resistance to evil (James 4:7-10).”

Responsorial Psalm Psalm 55:7-8, 9-10a, 10b-11a, 23
R. Throw your cares on the Lord, and he will support you.

Taken in total Psalm 55 is an individual lament. In theses strophes, the evil and deceit of the Psalmist’s friends has cased a desire to flee society, to rise above the strife (see also Jas 4;1-10 above). In the concluding strophe the psalmist expresses his faith that God will support the just against all attacks.

Gospel Mark 9:30-37

The passage from St. Mark’s Gospel begins with the second prediction of the passion Jesus is to face. The disciples, characteristic of St. Mark’s description, do not understand and begin to debate among themselves who will be greatest. Jesus tells them directly that their role (and by extension the role of all Christian disciples) is one of service. He probably uses the example of Children to represent the “anawim”; the poor in spirit, the most vulnerable of the Christian faithful.

Reflection:

We find an interesting relationship between the injunction by St. James for Christian unity and the instruction given to the disciples to be servants of each other by Jesus in St. Mark’s Gospel. St. James recognizes that strife in the Christian community comes from members who accept the values of the secular world. He specifically mentions worldly goods (“You covet but do not possess.” And “You ask but do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”) The passions for wealth, for power, for sex drive the unwary and because these passions in the secular world are satisfied by subjugating one person to another, conflicts arise.

St. James concludes this section with a statement that directly links to the Gospel from St. Mark (“Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.”). In the Gospel story, Jesus and just his closest friends set out from the region of Caesarea Philippi and began a “journey through Galilee”, headed for Capernaum. For a second time Jesus talks about his passion, death, and resurrection (recall the first time this happened was shortly after the transfiguration and St. Peter’s profession of faith that Jesus was the Messiah).

St. Mark’s picture of the disciples is not a very flattering one. They persistently do not understand what is apparent, even to early readers of the Gospel. In this case they must be thinking “Well if our teacher is going to his death and will be in heaven, we must be going with him so who should be number one when we get there?” They were probably citing personal attributes that would make them superior leaders. It was a very secular argument; one that might be heard in executive wash rooms as business leaders debate who will be next in line for promotion.

St. James may have recalled these words of Jesus as he penned his own letter. Jesus, who has gotten the sense of what they were discussing even though they were too embarrassed to tell him, tells the disciples that who ever would lead the flock must serve it. Unlike to leaders of the secular world who say “Do this…” or “Go there…” the words of the servant are “Follow me…” and “How can I help…”. It is a difficult thing to put down the world and pick up Christ. It is a complete change of heart – it is conversion.

Today we pray that our hearts might be changed that our servant leadership might bring others to Christ and that through our humble service Christian unity might be obtained. Our hope is that the Lord will be honored and served and that our service and humility will lead others to follow and find peace.

Pax

[1] After Links to Readings Expire
[2] This sketch for “Christ rebuking his disciples by calling the little child”, by Charles Robert Leslie, 1858