THE LOVER OF THE WORLD IS THE ENEMY OF GOD

One day was at the airport and at my back was a nun together with 2 other lay women. When we were about to be boarded into the plane, those seated at the business class would obviously be boarded first. After the last person from the Business class was boarded, the nun got her bag and leaving her companions she went off to the boarding officers and asked if she could be boarded right away because she is a nun. Because may be of her sense of entitlement, the officer did not board her and asked her to go back in line. While she was in line behind my back, she was murmuring.

The temptation to put myself at a pedestal as a result from the fanfare from the people is always present. The temptation to seek for greatness in the eyes of the world is manifested when we seek presidential chairs, VIP treatments, priority lanes fro religious, when we use faith and vocation for self-promotion, when we speak out loud just to be relevant, when we seek to be recognized and be credited, or by simply be trying to be noticed.

Today, Jesus draws a line on the sand between the worldly notion of greatness and that of spiritual one. The worldly greatness is not what Jesus came for. The Spiritual greatness is the very life he tried to live as an example: “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” Greatness is not about having the best seats or being recognized or heard or held at a pedestal. Greatness is about knowing the needs of others, and actually being ready to help and deny one’s self. The first reading articulates it most profoundly: “Do you not know that to be a lover of the world means enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wants to be a lover of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

When we try to deem our greatness we become aliens for the people we serve and live with. In the community, when we only think of our individual greatness we fail to recognize the communal spirit of living together. When we become entitled to VIP treatments, or to presidential chairs, we fail to understand the plight of the people especially the poor. What a shame to behold that their pastors have gone ahead of them on the journey just because there is an easy way out.

When we brag what we have to those who have none, we loose the opportunity to fill that gap and continuously create a gap that separates instead of that unites or sympathize. When we show off, we miss the point of having or of abundance. When we show off, we miss the point that having anything at all is blessing first and foremost.

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READINGS

FIRST READING

Jas 4:1-10

Beloved:

Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from?

Is it not from your passions that make war within your members?

You covet but do not possess.

You kill and envy but you cannot obtain;

you fight and wage war.

You do not possess because you do not ask.

You ask but do not receive, because you ask wrongly,

to spend it on your passions.

Adulterers!

Do you not know that to be a lover of the world means enmity with God?

Therefore, whoever wants to be a lover of the world

makes himself an enemy of God.

Or do you suppose that the scripture speaks without meaning when it says,

The spirit that he has made to dwell in us tends toward jealousy?

But he bestows a greater grace; therefore, it says:

God resists the proud,

but gives grace to the humble.

So submit yourselves to God.

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

Cleanse your hands, you sinners,

and purify your hearts, you of two minds.

Begin to lament, to mourn, to weep.

Let your laughter be turned into mourning

and your joy into dejection.

Humble yourselves before the Lord

and he will exalt you.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM

Ps 55:7-8, 9-10a, 10b-11a, 23

R. (23a) Throw your cares on the Lord, and he will support you.

And I say, “Had I but wings like a dove,

I would fly away and be at rest.

Far away would I flee;

I would lodge in the wilderness.”

“I would wait for him who saves me

from the violent storm and the tempest.”

Engulf them, O Lord; divide their counsels.

In the city I see violence and strife,

day and night they prowl about upon its walls.

Cast your care upon the LORD,

and he will support you;

never will he permit the just man to be disturbed.

GOSPEL

Mk 9:30-37

Jesus and his disciples left from there and began a journey through Galilee,

but he did not wish anyone to know about it.

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 he will rise.”

But they did not understand the saying,

and they were afraid to question him.

They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house,

he began to ask them,

“What were you arguing about on the way?”

But they remained silent.

For they had been discussing among themselves on the way

who was the greatest.

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.”