Liturgy of the Sunday

Twenty-fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time

First Reading

Wisdom 2,12.17-20

Let us lay traps for the upright man, since he annoys us and opposes our way of life, reproaches us for our sins against the Law, and accuses us of sins against our upbringing. Let us see if what he says is true, and test him to see what sort of end he will have. For if the upright man is God's son, God will help him and rescue him from the clutches of his enemies. Let us test him with cruelty and with torture, and thus explore this gentleness of his and put his patience to the test. Let us condemn him to a shameful death since God will rescue him -- or so he claims.'

Psalmody

Psalm 53

Antiphon

From every agony, Lord, you have freed me.

O God, save me by your name;
by your power, uphold my cause.

O God, hear my prayer;
listen to the words of my mouth.

For proud men have risen against me,
ruthless men seek my life.
They have no regard for God.

But I have God for my help.
The Lord upholds my life.

Let the evil recoil upon my foes :
you who are faithful, destroy them.

I will sacrifice to you with willing heart
and praise your name for it is good :

for you have rescued me from all my distress
and my eyes have seen the downfall of my foes.

Second Reading

James 3,16-4,3

Wherever there are jealousy and ambition, there are also disharmony and wickedness of every kind; whereas the wisdom that comes down from above is essentially something pure; it is also peaceable, kindly and considerate; it is full of mercy and shows itself by doing good; nor is there any trace of partiality or hypocrisy in it. The peace sown by peacemakers brings a harvest of justice. Where do these wars and battles between yourselves first start? Is it not precisely in the desires fighting inside your own selves? You want something and you lack it; so you kill. You have an ambition that you cannot satisfy; so you fight to get your way by force. It is because you do not pray that you do not receive; when you do pray and do not receive, it is because you prayed wrongly, wanting to indulge your passions.

Reading of the Gospel

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Yesterday I was buried with Christ,
today I rise with you who are risen.
With you I was crucified;
remember me, Lord, in your kingdom.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Mark 9,30-37

After leaving that place they made their way through Galilee; and he did not want anyone to know, because he was instructing his disciples; he was telling them, 'The Son of man will be delivered into the power of men; they will put him to death; and three days after he has been put to death he will rise again.' But they did not understand what he said and were afraid to ask him. They came to Capernaum, and when he got into the house he asked them, 'What were you arguing about on the road?' They said nothing, because on the road they had been arguing which of them was the greatest. So he sat down, called the Twelve to him and said, 'If anyone wants to be first, he must make himself last of all and servant of all.' He then took a little child whom he set among them and embraced, and he said to them, 'Anyone who welcomes a little child such as this in my name, welcomes me; and anyone who welcomes me, welcomes not me but the one who sent me.'

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Yesterday I was buried with Christ,
today I rise with you who are risen.
With you I was crucified;
remember me, Lord, in your kingdom.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Homily

Jesus and the disciples "went on from there and passed through Galilee." These words from Mark's Gospel bring us into the journey that Jesus had just begun from Galilee to Jerusalem. The journey that the Lord makes with the disciples is symbolic; it symbolizes life's journey, the journey of spiritual growth, much like the journey we are called to make with the Lord, Sunday after Sunday during each liturgical year. While walking along the road, Jesus speaks with his disciples. But this time he does not seem like a teacher, but rather like a friend opening up his heart to his closest friends. Jesus, who is not a solitary hero, needs to confide in his friends, sharing the most secret thoughts paining his heart at that moment. He tells them, "The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him." This is the second time he spoke to them about this. When he told them of this the first time, he bitterly rebuked Peter for having tried to dissuade him from going to Jerusalem. Jesus feels the need to confide in them again. Evidently, an immense anxiety is oppressing him, the same kind that he will feel in the garden at Gethsemane and that will make him sweat blood. Once again, however, not one of the disciples comprehends Jesus' thoughts and feelings.
Upon arriving at a house in Capernaum, Jesus asked them what they were discussing, but "they were silent," the evangelist notes. Their silence is a sign of the shame for what they had discussed. And that was good. Shame is the first step toward conversion. Shame, in fact, is born from recognizing one's distance from Jesus and from the Gospel. Sin is being distant from Jesus before it is some particularly bad act that someone commits. And if we do not feel any shame for being distant, then we need to be worried about it. When we do not feel ashamed for our sin, when we soften the blow of our evil deeds on our conscience, when we do not feel the weight of our sin, we then exclude ourselves from receiving forgiveness. The true tragedy of our life would be if we had no one to question us as Jesus did with his disciples when he asked, "What were you arguing about on the way?" Without these words we will remain prisoners of ourselves and of our miserable self-assurance. Sunday is the day of forgiveness because we are able to draw near once again to the Lord who speaks to us, who questions us, who permits to us to become aware of our poverty and our sin.
The evangelist writes, "Jesus sat down, called the twelve," and began to explain the Gospel to them again. This scene is emblematic for the Christian community. We could say that this scene is like an icon. Each one of us and each Christian community should gather together frequently around the Gospel to listen to the Lord's teaching, to correct their behaviour, and to fill their hearts and minds again with Jesus' thoughts and feelings. "Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all" (Mk 9:35). Jesus does not contest the disciples' search to be first, but overturns it completely; he says that it is first the one who serves, not the one who commands. And so that they would better understand what he wanted to say, Jesus takes a small child, embraces him and puts him at the centre of the group of disciples. This centre is not just a physical centre, but is also the centre of attention, of concern and of the heart. That child should be at the centre of the Christian communities' attention. And he explains why, "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me." In the small, the weak, the defenceless, the poor, the sick, in those whom society discards and pushes away, Jesus, even the Father himself, is present.