25th Sunday – Sept 20, 2015

In January 1951, the Time magazine carried a story of Mary Frances "Frankie" Housley, the lone stewardess on National Airlines flight 83 which crashed after landing at Philadelphia Airport in January, 1951. Frankie Housley had made 10 trips into that burning plane... to help passengers get out. As soon as she had finished getting all of the passengers to safety Housley also started to jump from the plane. But just before she made her escape, a passenger on the ground screamed, “My baby, my baby!” Flight attendant Mary Housley turned back into the plane to find the baby, and that was the last time anyone saw her alive. She died in the attempt to save the baby, and rescue workers found her charred body holding the four-month-old baby in her arms. The story of her courage made national headlines, including an item in Time magazine. Today’s Gospel challenges Christians to serve others with Frankie’s dedication and sacrificial commitment.

 

Introduction: Today’s readings invite us to become great in the sight of God by doing God’s will, as Jesus did,  surrendering our lives in the service of others. The passage from the Book of Wisdom sounds like a Messianic prophecy similar to the “Suffering Servant” prophecy in Isaiah. It refers to Christ’s passion and urges us to choose the path of righteousness in spite of painful consequences, as Jesus did. In today’s Psalm, (Ps 54), the Psalmist prays for help against the insolent people who rise against the upright. The second reading is in tune with the dispute among the apostles about who is the greatest. James warns us that selfish ambitions destroy peace and cause conflicts and war. He advises us to choose the path of righteousness and humble service which leads to lasting peace.  Jesus, in today’s Gospel, gives us a glimpse of the path proposed by the first and second readings—namely, loving him in others by embracing the vulnerable in our midst: the defenseless children, the despairing poor, the terrified, the mentally ill, the marginalized, the disabled, the refugees of war.  Jesus also teaches his apostles that child-like humility and loving, selfless service make one great in the eyes of God.

The first reading: Wisdom 2:12, 17-20.  The Book of Wisdom was written in Greek in Alexandria of Egypt in the first century (around 100 BC), for "the Diaspora," the Jews living in pagan cities, such as   the cosmopolitan city of Alexandria. It is a canonical book for Catholics and Orthodox Christians, but not for Protestants and Jews. The author wanted his fellow-Jews to embrace wisdom, by which he meant faithful adherence to their ancestral religion in their somewhat hostile environment. The “just one” described in today’s selection may have been a real person, or perhaps he was simply a symbol of Israel, patterned after Isaiah’s Suffering Servant.  But many Fathers of the Church consider this passage to be a Messianic prophecy of Jesus’ fate at the hands of his own people, presenting him as a “Suffering Servant.” The passage refers to a righteous sufferer and points to Jesus' crucifixion. Both the “just one” and Jesus were innocent victims of the jealous and selfish ambition of their opponents. Jesus was the righteous one par excellence. When those who opposed him were unable to undermine the success of his ministry, they plotted to get rid of him. Thus, Jesus became the ideal model of how one should continue faithfully on the path of righteousness despite immense obstacles, leaving the outcome in God’s hands.  This reading tells us how the world often ill-treats those who strive to live justly and do God’s will.   

The second reading (James: 3:16--4:3): James is emphatic about the contrast between spiritual wisdom and earthly wisdom.  The apostle states that conflicts and disputes in our country, local communities, Churches and families come from our inordinate desires, jealousy, worldly cravings and selfish ambition. Most of our personal conflicts, and sins like slander, stealing and adultery, stem from our desire to possess what we do not have.   Today’s Gospel also speaks about such a dispute among the apostles. James contrasts jealousy and selfishness with the wisdom from above that produces a harvest of righteousness. Besides warning us to avoid jealousy and selfish ambition, James describes true wisdom as “pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity.”

Exegesis:  The context: Jesus was returning to Capernaum after journeying incognito through the Northern Province of Galilee, avoiding crowds and teaching the apostles.  Mark presents Jesus as giving three predictions about his suffering and death, one each in chapters 8, 9 and 10.   The response by Jesus' disciples was horror and disappointment because they had been dreaming of a political Messiah who would usher in an earthly Kingdom.  Hence, in chapter 8, Peter rebukes Jesus for his words.   In chapter 9, (the first part of today’s text), an argument arises among the disciples as to who among them is the greatest.   In the third passage (in chapter 10), James and John foolishly ask Jesus to give them seats on his right and left, when he comes to power.   The second part of today’s Gospel describes Jesus’ return to Peter’s house in Capernaum, where he gives his apostles a picture of what true greatness is. Washington Irving once wrote, "Great minds have purposes, little minds have wishes." All these men had was a wish--a wish for greater status, a wish to stand in Jesus' spotlight and soak up some applause. Jesus wanted them to look beyond their own selfish wishes to embrace the purposes of God.

The Christian criterion of greatness: Jesus says that people who serve humbly and lovingly are the greatest. He uses a play on an Aramaic word that can mean either servant or child.  Presenting a child before them, Jesus explains that one who wishes to be the first among them must be a servant to all.  True greatness consists in loving service of one's fellow men and is never self-centered.  It lies in the ability to see and respond to the needs of others and it presupposes compassion and sympathy. The two conditions of true greatness are humility and loving service. This vocation to loving service belongs to the Church as a whole and to every member of the Church.   In other words, the Christian vocation is an apostolate of bearing witness to Christ through loving service.  Christian history teaches us that whenever the members of Christ’s Church have forgotten or ignored this call to service, the Church has suffered.

The paradox of the first becoming the last: Jesus stands conventional wisdom on its head.    The truly great person is a diakonos --  a deacon; a servant; a person who spends his/her day taking loving care of other people. What does it mean when Jesus states that those who want to be the first must be the last? Probably, Jesus is speaking of his life and death in the spirit of his being a loving Servant and being considered the last, the loser. Jesus wants his apostles to substitute for their ambition to rule (thus becoming “the first”), the ambition to serve (thus becoming the last). We are all supposed to be serving in love, whatever our position or role in society, the family or the Church may be, because true greatness lies in being the loving servant or slave of all.

Welcoming children. By setting a child before them, Jesus asked his disciples to be like the child, loving, innocent and humble, suggesting the importance of these virtues and attitudes.  A child represents the most powerless member of any society, a person who has no power, no influence, a person who can be controlled, abused, neglected or spoiled and rendered selfish by others.   By introducing the example of a child, Jesus also shows us that, when serving others, we must be careful to serve the least important.   This means that the Christian must show hospitality to those who have no social status: the outcast, the sinner, the sick and the feeble.  In other words, the Christian must serve all of God's children with love, regardless of whether they are friends or foes. Why? Because such people carry Jesus in our midst and, hence, they must be lovingly welcomed, respected and helped. In this passage, Jesus  also tells us that we must care for the unwanted, neglected, abused and ignored with love, because  then we really love and serve Jesus and his heavenly Father.

Life messages: 1:  We must become great through loving, humble, self-giving service.    Greatness, in Jesus' view, is found in our willingness to accept, welcome and serve with love those who are considered unacceptable and undeserving by reason of class, color, religion, poverty or culture.   We must welcome people the loving way a child welcomes them before he is taught discrimination.

2:   If we are to be truly great, we must be ready to accept four challenges:  (a) to put ourselves last, (b) to be the servant of all, (c) to receive the most insignificant human beings with love, and (d) to expect nothing in return.  During the holy Mass let us pray for the true spirit of service, for an attitude of love for those around us.

3: We need to express our thanks to all those who serve us: those who clean our houses, cook meals for us, wash our clothes, those volunteers in our parish community who serve at the Eucharistic celebration as altar servers, ushers, lectors, Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist, choir members, Sunday school teachers,  members of parish organizations like the Knight of Columbus, Ladies Sodality, Vincent De Paul Society and so many other organizations and groups and those government and city employees who serve the public.     We need to ask the Holy Spirit to help us to become truly great through loving, humble and selfless service. Mother Teresa puts it like this: “Be the living expression of God's kindness through humble service. Show kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile and kindness in your warm greeting.”

Elie Wiesel, Jewish writer and Nobel Peace Prize winner tells a disturbing story in one of his books about Auschwitz. As soon as children arrived by train at Auschwitz, together with the elderly and the sick, they were immediately selected for the gas chamber. On one occasion a group of children were left to wait by themselves for the next day. A man asked the guards if he could stay with the children during their last night on earth. Surprisingly, his request was granted. How did they spend that last night? He started off by telling them stories in an effort to cheer them up. However, instead of cheering them up, he only succeeded in making them cry. So what did they do? They cried together till daybreak. Then he accompanied the little ones to the gas chamber. Afterwards he returned to the prison yard to report to work. When the guards saw him they burst out laughing. -The story has most of the ingredients of our reading. In it we see the brazenness of the evil-doers, the persecution of the innocent, and the apparent triumph of evil, which is the subject of the first reading. The man’s heroic act of service towards the little ones shines out in the darkness of Auschwitz. He risked his life to befriend the little ones. He had no answers to give them, no salvation to offer them. All he could do was suffer with them and accompany them on their last journey. Though he was an ordinary person with no rank or status of any kind, he was undoubtedly the greatest person in that sad place on that sad occasion. What made him great was his goodness.

(Homilies of Fr. Tony Kadavil)