Roc Homily – Twenty-Ninth Sunday Ordinary Time = Oops

“The Two Ways”  –  The Wisdom Tradition grounds the basic gospel message of Jesus as a call from foolishness to wisdom.  We see it here in Mark’s use of the Greek word, thelo, “to wish, want, desire.”  John & James want to be recognized as great as do the scribes & Pharisees, and not seen as vulnerable.  Jesus calls them from that path by his words, “whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all…”

Twenty-Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time  

Homily by Roc O’Connor, SJ, associate pastor of the Church of the Gesu  (August 16, 2015)

Mark 10:35-45   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…”

“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.”