Wednesday 29 May 2024

Today is Wednesday 29 May, in the 8th week of Ordinary Time.


Ladysmith Black Mambazo sing: ‘Inhliziyo Zethu’: ‘You will make my heart pure’. A pure heart is a heart that is open to God, that doesn’t seek its own advantage, but wants whatever God wants. As I enter into prayer today, I ask for that openness of heart. I ask the Lord to lead my heart to him, to guide me in the way he wants me to go.

(Lyrics currently unavailable)



Today’s reading is from the Gospel of Mark.

Mark 10:32-45

They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, ‘See, 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; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise again.’

James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, ‘Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.’ And he said to them, ‘What is it you want me to do for you?’ And they said to him, ‘Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.’ But Jesus said to them, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?’ They replied, ‘We are able.’ Then Jesus said to them, ‘The cup 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 hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.’

When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. So Jesus called them and said to them, ‘You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’

It’s a natural human instinct to want reassurance, to want to know that our efforts won’t be in vain. We often want to know that we will result in something! At work, we set objectives, targets and indicators. Jesus asks us to put our faith in him, in God, not in the things of this world. What stops you from putting your faith in God?

“You don’t know what you are asking” says Jesus. How often, when you have set yourself objectives, have you not seen the full picture? Can you imagine yourself in James and John’s shoes for a moment? If you knew what you were really asking, would you still ask the question?

As you listen to the reading again, continue to imagine yourself as James or John. How do the other disciples look at you and react to what you are saying? How does Jesus react? How does he say these words to you, and how does all this make you feel?

In one of his sermons, St Oscar Romero talked about us being “prophets of a future not our own” and that “we are servants, not the master-builder”. How do you feel about being in this position of serving, or being asked to serve, without knowing the full picture? Can you talk to God about this, now?

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.