29th Sunday: Get over yourself!

The reading from the Letter to the Hebrews describes Jesus as the Great High Priest. He had human frailty, but is able to intercede for us before God. The image of Jesus of Nazareth as a priest is rooted in the Temple priesthood in Jerusalem. The Temple structure itself is a long, rectangular building like the main part of our own parish church. The Holy of Holies is a space at one end of the Temple building, like our own sanctuary, with the altar that stood before God. If you remember the story about Zechariah, John the Baptist’s father, he was offering incense in the Holy of Holies when God’s angel Gabriel appeared to him. Lk. 1:11. A veil separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the Temple structure. It was that veil that was torn in two, from top to bottom, at the time of Jesus’ death on the cross. Mt. 27:51. In the Temple, the high priest would go between God and earth, back and forth, interceding for the people of Israel. This is the image that the Letter to the Hebrews presents to us to explain how Christ saves us. It is the image of the marriage of heaven and earth.
 
Last Week’s Gospel: If you want to be perfect
None of us has seen God or been to heaven. God is not accessible to physics, psychiatry or sociology. When Jesus spoke of heaven he used images that we would understand to explain realities at a higher pitch than those we experience routinely in our life. Today’s Gospel is about how Jesus is the intermediary between God and the human community. If you recall last week, a young man ran up to Jesus and asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Mk. 10:17. Jesus responded, “Why do you call me good. No one is good but God alone.” Then the young man told the Lord that he had followed the commandments; he hadn’t killed anyone, stole anything, seduced someone else’s wife or lied. The Gospel said that Jesus ‘loved him.’ Then the Lord said, “You are lacking in one thing. Go sell what you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and then come follow me.”  The rich young man walked away sadly because he had many possessions. Jesus concluded how hard it is for people who can’t leave anything behind to enter eternal life.  
 
This Week’s Gospel: Eternal life and service
The disciples apparently were not listening. The young man was still walking away when two of the disciples, James and John, asked Jesus, “Grant that in your Glory we may sit one at your right, the other at your left.” Mk. 10:35. The other apostles were indignant that James and John had tried to get the best seats. The two disciples, in response to Jesus, affirm that they can be baptized like Jesus is baptized, in suffering. ( Note bene: it is the same pattern of Jesus asking and humans responding as in the previous story of the rich, young man) But Jesus tells them that the best seats are reserved for the ones God has prepared them for. He is the intermediary; God will make that judgment. But then Jesus went on,
 
Jesus summoned them and said to them, "You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt.  But it shall not be so among you. 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." Mk. 10:44-45
 
The Great High Priest serves
Jesus’ answer refers back to his conversation with the rich, young man. Our perfection is found in our capacity to serve other people. We can’t control other’s love for us. We can only accept how other’s love us. We can choose how we serve other people. The word the scripture uses for love is ‘to serve’ others. What is the point of wealth, health and power if it is not aimed at the good of other people? Remember that Jesus told the rich young man to give his money to the poor. The image of the High Priest going between earth and heaven describes the human movement from a life centered on ourselves to a life centered on the well-being of others.
 
Vocation as the image of service
Marriage is the sacrament that is the image of God and the Church. It is the most intimate social, psychological, physical and emotional relationship that humans enjoy. Some of the greatest suffering men and women endure is when that relationship fails in its essential purpose. Abuse, infidelity, financial irresponsibility, lack of communication or acceptance, are all reasons that contribute to stress and failure in marriage. St. Paul advises couple to,
 
“Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Eph. 5:21
 
In the letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul holds up Christ’s service as the image for spouses. “For the son of man came to serve and to give his life for the ransom of many,” Mk. 10:45. Stable marriage support not only the children, but the well-being of the larger family group and the community. The model of service built around husband and wife as equal partners in life is the image of Christ’s service to the Church.   
 
Everyone needs a goal in marriage. There are hundreds of ways to fail in marriage. There is really only one way to succeed. You need a common goal that both partners recognize as their most important motivation. That goal is to follow Christ. Last week, the rich young man did not leave his past behind to follow Christ. In today’s Gospel, James and John must leave their expectations of ‘glory’ behind to follow Christ. There are lots of things you have to leave behind to have a happy and holy vocation.
 
It is the same in religious life. To be happy and fruitful in religious life one must leave a lot of things behind. In both marriage and religious life, you experience the constant call to leave things behind.  Leaving behind something requires that we change. John Henry Newman said, “To live is to have changed and to be perfect is to have changed often.”