Gospel Reflections for October 18 2015
The real winner’s trophy!
Can you imagine a Major League Baseball team seeking the World Series title, but without playing any games at all? We would be outraged. Well, that is what happens in today’s Gospel.
A well intentioned mother is intrigued when Jesus announces the “Kingdom of God.” That sounds like quite a wonderful place and so she wants a prominent role in that Kingdom for her two sons, but she wants it instantly and without her sons actually following Our Lord.
Jesus takes it all in good humor but indicates that they will have to eventually “get in the game” which simply means they must follow Him, and live and love with total commitment just as He has done for them.
He also indicates that a Christian life may sometimes include severe challenges, hardship, and even suffering. Christians might have to enter the arena of a difficult life. (What life isn’t?) Christians never ask for suffering, and if possible, we hope it never happens, but if it does, we know exactly what to do. By following the words and life of Jesus we emerge from suffering, wiser, happier, and more at peace than ever before, just as He did. Our steady commitment to love, no matter what life brings, ensures the same peace that Jesus enjoyed. There is no easy path to success.
While it sounds great to get a trophy or title instantly, it is not actually very satisfying if it comes with no effort. Cheap awards just don’t feel like awards, and they do not satisfy. The mother in today’s Gospel certainly had noble and sincere intentions for her sons, but she was just innocently mistaken about where real success is found. If she took the cheap shortcut, her sons would remain weak and defenseless against the first hardship or challenge that ever came along. The cheap shortcut leads nowhere.
I hope your favorite team will win the World Series or Super Bowl or whatever sport you enjoy. I certainly hope mine favorite team will! (The Packers!) Yet I know every player on any favorite team will have to actually enter the arena of life and play with everything they have with total personal commitment in order to win.
Let us also enter each day with the same spirit of total commitment and fidelity to Our Lord. We can truly feel like …and actually be a winner each and every day.
God Bless!
Fr. Dave
this Gospel reflection was especially helpful to me today. not that we have to earn God’s love, but to feel the peace that God’s love brings, we must be wholeheartedly living each day with faith. I think I have been living halfheartedly for too long. this reflection inspired and reminded me. Thank you my friend and spiritual mentor! Love, Joyce
So glad you found it helpful! You were my first writing mentor, so I am grateful as well!
Love your commentary and words Father Dave!!!” Let us enter each day with the same spirit and total commitment and fidelity to our Lord!! and we can actually feel like and be a winner each day!! !”To follow Jesus, to love, care, share ourselves with others is a beautiful way to live our lives!!!To reach out to others and bring joy and happiness to them inspires our soul to grow in love!!! Love is why we’re here!!! love is who we are!!! We must actively work to make a beautiful difference for Jesus in this world and someday Jesus and our Mary will embrace us in love!!!! Heaven is ours!!!! That is our precious prize of LOVE!!!! Love it!!!!You are living Jesus’ love Father Dave~!!!!
Love, Franca and Dick
well said!
👍
🙂
Thank you for the teaching, coach! I am inspired to try hard in the game of life. Rah!
There are plenty of “trophies” to go around for everyone who follows the Lord!
Salvation is God’s to give, not ours to demand. God promises eternal life to all who believe,
but do we have any responsibility beyond believing?
“Not everyone who says “Lord. Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the
will of my Father in heaven” Matthew 7.
It seems that James and John didn’t understand that Jesus was destined to be a heavenly
King, not an earthly one . They also missed that He wanted to build a kingdom focused on love
and mercy, not power and domination.
Anyone who follows Jesus will be given a place of honor in His Kingdom.
Well said! Although the Gospel does not expressly indicate how Jesus emotionally took their question, I tend to think that He took it in good humor, since He knew fully how myopic we humans tend to be. Quite beautifully, He also indicates clearly that both James and John would fully understand later on, since He indicates that both would “drink of His cup” meaning they would suffer martyrdom for the Kingdom that they had once so foolishly asked to receive so easily.
We get to move ahead by earning that right; it is not given.
We simply follow Jesus into the Kingdom. If our path is easy, well, enjoy! If it is difficult, we maintain the same journey. Either way, we arrive into a Kingdom of eternal joy!
Hello Father Dave. Your good words reminded me of an old and cherished friend, Father Newman Eberhardt, and what he had said years ago, reminding me of the game of marbles and how we ‘played for keeps.’ I have often recalled that remark as I remembered how it was in the l940s when I watched the fervor of my brother and his friends playing marbles, and ‘playing for keeps.’ So I am again reminded, we are playing ‘;for keeps’ in the ‘game of life’, and how I wished that we had the fervor of the boys I knew so long ago, in their intensity over a game of marbles. May God bless us with renewed fervor so that we do remember we are ‘playing for keeps.’ Thank you, FAther Dave.
Thank you for the memory of Fr. Eberhardt. He taught me Church History for many years in the seminary and I was profoundly impressed at his amazing intellect but also his amazing humility. He clearly was one of the smartest people I ever knew, but also one of the kindest. One time, after a brief conversation about some historical topic, I received a ten page “summary” of the topic in my room that he typed out right afterwards for me. He was totally dedicated to using all of his talents for us. I will never forget him.
I don’t know why but it reminded me of the week I had… I was at a meeting and people were wanting immediate gratification and it was irritating me for serveral reasons which I won’t go into It was interesting that what irritates us the most sometimes is our own thron in the flesh and we need to look at it for ourselves. It really got to me this week that we always want to be on top and what is it for me. When Our Lord got my attention from them I was reminded about the times when I wanted for me. Wow. Didn’t want to look at that. I was pointing a finger at one and had 3 more pointed back at me. It was even harder at another meeting when I had trouble regrouping when someone was saying this is mine and it all started over again. Serving is not expecting anything for yourself. It is about giving
Now we know why it is such a good thing to go to Mass every week. You never know when the gospel will speak directly to our own situation. thank you for sharing that story.