Daily Gospel Reflection
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May 29, 2024
The disciples were on the way, going up to Jerusalem,
and Jesus went ahead of them.
They were amazed, and those who followed were afraid.
Taking the Twelve aside again, he began to tell them
what was going to happen to him.
“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man
will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes,
and they will condemn him to death
and hand him over to the Gentiles who will mock him,
spit upon him, scourge him, and put him to death,
but after three days he will rise.”
Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
came to Jesus and said to him,
“Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”
He replied, “What do you wish me to do for you?”
They answered him,
“Grant that in your glory
we may sit one at your right and the other at your left.”
Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking.
Can you drink the chalice that I drink
or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”
They said to him, “We can.”
Jesus said to them, “The chalice that I drink, you will drink,
and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized;
but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give
but is for those for whom it has been prepared.”
When the ten heard this, they became indignant at James and John.
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.”
My father-in-law died a few years ago, and what I remember most about his funeral is that everyone in his very large family came. Nine children, their spouses, and twenty-six grandchildren showed up to honor him. Some traveled long distances to get there, and one family had to cut short a vacation in another country to make it back for the funeral.
I remember standing in this vast sea of family and feeling the love he left behind. Though he had some noteworthy accomplishments, his family remembered him as a quiet, stay-in-the-background kind of person who never missed Mass and always showed up with a calm, reassuring presence when there was a hardship or any work to be done. His life of service was honored by everyone in his large family who recognized deep within themselves the gift of life and love he had given them.
Jesus is leading his disciples on the way to Jerusalem—the way to his own suffering and death. He is trying to teach those who follow him that life’s value does not lie in great earthly accomplishments but in service to others. Like the sons of Zebedee, we get caught up in competing for honor and in trying to be better than those around us. We focus on what we accomplish.
At my father-in-law’s funeral, I felt the truth Jesus is trying to teach us as he faces his death. The value of our life does not lie in what we gain for ourselves but in what we give away. Giving others our time, love, service, and help might cost us seats of honor in this lifetime, but this unrecognized, unseen service gives life to others and yields fruit that endures.
Prayer
Lord, if we drink the cup each of us is poured and given in life, we know that we, your servants, just like the first disciples, will fare no better than you, our master. But if we shirk the cross in our lives, gone too will be our hope. Strengthen us to be faithful to our vocations that in serving rather than being served, we will find the dying and the rising equally assured. Amen.