29th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Sunday 18th October 2015

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

(Sunday 18th October 2015)

 

When we are ambitious, let it be for the greater glory of God – (Mark 10:35-45)

 

It is good to be ambitious, to do the best we can and to give glory to God.  This should permeate through everything we do in our day-to-day lives.  When we are playing sports, are at work, at school or college, at home with family or while hanging out with our friends, we should be the best person we possibly can be.   Ambition, like all aspects of our lives, must be a part of who we are, but it must also be balanced.  If we begin cheating at sports or in other areas of our lives, just so people would give us praise, or if we just want glory so as to lord it over others, then we cease giving glory to God.

In this Sunday’s Gospel, James and John begin their conversation and immediately they fall into the trap of seeking self-glory, that we, too, can so often do, by saying ‘we want you to do us a favour.’  They have begun by telling the Lord, and their Master, to do what they want and not what is the will of God.  In our spiritual life, we should always be on the look out to see if our conversation with God is like this.   Are we telling God what to do or are we looking to the Wisest Guide of all for advice?  Poor James and John go even further and ask glory for themselves.  Instead of asking for glory so as to bring justice to the world, instead, they want it for themselves and their own needs.

Jesus does not get annoyed or angry with them, he just points them to what God’s glory or his self-sacrificing love looks like.  The cup that Jesus must drink, and the baptism he must receive, is his self-emptying and offering on the cross.  This is the glory of God.  Following this Jesus is resurrected from the dead and he now sits at the right hand side of the Father.  The glory of God is offering our-selves to others and for others.  So often when we make sacrifices, nobody sees, and nobody else ever knows.  However, God sees everything.

Maximilian Kolbe was a Franciscan priest who was imprisoned and treated cruelly for ministering as a priest in an Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II.  When a man, with a wife and family had been selected to be starved to death, Maximilian offered himself in his place, and he was killed for his trouble.  Maximilian sought to seek the glory of God and was seeking to save another’s life, a man with a family, and never thought that his offering would be remembered.  However, he was later canonized a saint.

In this Gospel passage, Jesus compares self-sacrificing glory to the glory of the world.  To gain the glory of the world,  people use their power and glory to lord it over others and even oppress them.  This still happens in our world where the poor suffer.  We also see it with the homeless people on our streets and across the world, and our rulers do not do enough for these brothers and sisters of ours who are also children of God.

When we are ambitious, let it be for the greater glory of God.

Fr. Robert McGivney