Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 20, 2015 Cycle B
by Rev. Jose Maria Cortes, F.S.C.E.

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In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Today’s Gospel reading talks about greatness. The Word of God invites us to be great, to be the first.

We need to be ambitious. In the Gospel, Jesus says that we do not need to be just a bit ambitious—we need to be tremendously ambitious. The Kingdom of Heaven is not for dwarf souls but for giant ones.

The Gospel tells us about an interesting discussion concerning who was the greatest and most important among the disciples. Jesus asked them: “What were you arguing about on the way?” (Mk 9:33). They answered with silence. They were ashamed because they had been talking about power just a moment after Jesus said that he would have to die on the cross. There was a great distance between Jesus and his disciples. The Apostles did not understand Jesus’ mission at all.

The Apostles had been discussing who among them was the most important. They were divided. In the second reading, Saint James describes what was going on among the Twelve: “Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and very foul practice” (Jas 3:16). It is not enough to be in the Church in order to think in a different way. There is always the risk of being here but thinking in a worldly way. If this could happen to the Apostles, it could also happen to us.

Jesus showed the disciples how all of them could be first. He introduced a new way of being first. He created a revolution when he said: “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all” (Mk 9:35).

In the worldly sense, only a few can reach the first place in anything. Common people like me and maybe you are out of the race. I can neither swim like Phelps nor run like Bolt. I can neither become President of the United States nor can I be a successful manager like Bill Gates. Worldly ambition allows just a few to win. It leaves a lot of people frustrated and fighting about unimportant things.

Jesus democratizes the possibility of being first. With him, we can all be first. He invites us to be ambitious. He says that selfish ambition is bad but there is also good ambition, the ambition to be like Him. In the second reading, Saint James explains that ambition that comes “from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity” (Jas 3:16).

Jesus revolutionizes the idea of power. He says that power in the Church is service. Who are elevated to the honor of the altar? Are they Popes, bishops or priests? Yes, sometimes but not always. Saints are men and women who understood and practiced the new way of living that Jesus proclaimed. Holiness is the most important thing in the Church. Everything has to be in its service.

Let us accept Jesus’ invitation to be first. Let us ask for holy ambition in our hearts. Let us ask Jesus to make our lives great.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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