Homily for the Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings: Wisdom 2:12, 17-20 James 3:16—4: 3 Mark 9:30-37
Something is not right with his heart.
At least, that is what we think, and that is troubling news for a third-grade student. So, not long ago, he was wearing a heart monitor.
One day after lunch, he turned paler than usual and complained of a headache and tummy ache. His teacher called his mother. She found the two of them, the third grader and his teacher, sitting at the bottom of the stairs near the front door. Her arms were cradling him. They were both scared.
That was a moment, one could say, when role gave way to relationship. Teacher is her role in his life. Love is the relationship the two of them share. You are named to a role. You must forge a relationship.
We see roles contrasted with relationships in a brilliantly composed sequence of St. Mark’s Gospel. It opens with Jesus speaking to his chosen:
He was teaching his disciples and telling them,
“The Son of Man is to be handed over to men
and they will kill him,
and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise” (9:31).
St. Mark says that his disciples neither understand nor question this fearful announcement of Jesus. They still stand too far out of relationship with him to do either. So far that, only moments later, they argue about who will assume what roles in his coming kingdom.
There is nothing wrong with roles. They have their necessary place in life. The problem is roles untethered to relationships. They lose their roots.
Jesus announces himself as the Son. This is a relationship. Indeed, he stands in a unique rapport with the God of Israel. Jesus addresses him as Father and teaches us to do the same. Grounded in this relationship of Father and Son, Jesus can embrace his role. He has come among us to suffer and to die.
The closing scene of St. Mark’s brilliant sequence is touching, but it is intended to teach. Roles must be rooted in relationships.
Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them,
“If anyone wishes to be first,
he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.”
Taking a child, he placed it in their midst,
and putting his arms around it, he said to them,
“Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me;
and whoever receives me,
receives not me but the One who sent me” (9:35-37).
Good teacher that he is, Jesus instructs his disciples with both word and gesture. He illustrates for them how he himself rests in his Father’s arms. He helps them to understand that their only hope of fulfilling the august roles they already relish is to ground themselves in their relationship with the Father, who loves them as he loves his only Son.
The Gospels are manuals of discipleship. Their lessons are for us. Roles without relationships are risky business. We cannot do for others without being for others. And ultimately the only way we can be who we were meant to be for others is to be who we are meant to be before God: beloved sons and daughters, deeply rooted in a relationship of love.
Jesus held a child in calm rest. My teacher held one in a worried grasp. Either way, roles were rooted in relationships. All was as it should be.
