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Contemplating today's Gospel

Today's Gospel + homily (in 300 words)

Wednesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time
View 1st Reading and Psalm
1st Reading (1Pt 1:18-25): Beloved: Realize that you were ransomed from your futile conduct, handed on by your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold but with the precious Blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished Lamb. He was known before the foundation of the world but revealed in the final time for you, who through him believe in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Since you have purified yourselves by obedience to the truth for sincere brotherly love, love one another intensely from a pure heart. You have been born anew, not from perishable but from imperishable seed, through the living and abiding word of God, for: «All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of the field; the grass withers, and the flower wilts; but the word of the Lord remains forever». This is the word that has been proclaimed to you.
Responsorial Psalm: 147
R/. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
Glorify the Lord, o Jerusalem; praise your God, o Zion. For he has strengthened the bars of your gates; he has blessed your children within you.

He has granted peace in your borders; with the best of wheat he fills you. He sends forth his command to the earth; swiftly runs his word!

He has proclaimed his word to Jacob, his statutes and his ordinances to Israel. He has not done thus for any other nation; his ordinances he has not made known to them.
Versicle before the Gospel (Mk 10:45): Alleluia. The Son of Man cane to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Alleluia.
Gospel text (Mk 10:32-45): The disciples were on the way, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus went ahead of them. They were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. Taking the Twelve aside again, he began to tell them what was going to happen to him. "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles who will mock him, spit upon him, scourge him, and put him to death, but after three days he will rise."

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus and said to him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." He replied, "What do you wish me to do for you?" They answered him, "Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left." Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the chalice that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?" They said to him, "We can." Jesus said to them, "The chalice that I drink, you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared." When the ten heard this, they became indignant at James and John. Jesus summoned them and said to them, "You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all. For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."

“For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many”

Fr, René PARADA Menéndez (San Salvador, El Salvador)

Today, the Lord teaches us what our attitude before the Cross must be. The ardent love of Jesus for His Father's Will, to carry out the salvation of Mankind, of each man, of each woman, urges Him to quickly move towards Jerusalem, “the Son of Man will be handed over… they will condemn him to death… scourge him, and put him to death” (Mk 10:33-34). Though, at times, we may not understand it or may be afraid of pain and suffering or of every day's contradictions, let us try to lovingly join God's salvific will with the offering of our daily Cross.

Assiduous prayer and the Sacraments, especially the personal Confession of our sins and the Eucharist, will increase our love for God and our love for others, in such a way that we shall be able to affirm that “We can” (Mk 10:39), in spite of our misery, fears and sins. Yes, we shall be able to take up our daily cross and follow Him (cf. Lk 9:23) for love, with a smile; that cross that is evidenced by our ordinary everyday life: tiredness in our job, family difficulties, social relations, etc.

Only if we embrace our cross every day, denying ourselves to serve others, shall we be able to identify ourselves with the Christ, who came “to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mk 10:45). Saint John Paul II explained in this way: “Jesus' service attains its fullest expression in his death on the cross, that is, in his total gift of self in humility and love.” Let us, therefore, imitate Jesus Christ, by constantly transforming our love for Him in servicing actions for other people: wealthy or poor, educated or uneducated, young or old, without distinction. Servicing actions to get them closer to God and free them from sin.

Thoughts on Today's Gospel

  • “True God and true man were combined to form one Lord, so that, as suited the needs of our case, one and the same Mediator between God and men could both die and rise.” (Saint Leo the Great)

  • “While it is usually the case that anything unclean touching something clean renders it unclean, here it is the other way around. Through this contact, the filth of the world is truly absorbed, wiped out, and transformed in the pain of infinite love.” (Benedict XVI)

  • “By his loving obedience to the Father, ‘unto death, even death on a cross’ (Phil 2:8), Jesus fulfils the atoning mission of the suffering Servant, who will ‘make many righteous; and he shall bear their iniquities’ (Is 53:11).” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, Nº 623)

July 28th
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

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