Friday – Feast of St. James, Apostle   

Gospel – Matthew 20:20-28

Sons of Thunder

Mass on Mt. Tabor

Years ago when our daughter was in grade school, I remember some sort of honors ceremony where she was hoping to get an award (don’t remember what) but she didn’t.  And she was upset!  So like any loving dad, I went out and bought her a generic trophy to help her feel better.  Yeah, I was one of those parents!  But let’s face it – we all want the best for our kids; we would do whatever it takes for them, and I still do!  But, in reality, there is only so much we can do for them; most of the time they need to learn and to grow from their successes and failures on their own.

As we celebrate today the Feast of St. James, Apostle, we see in the Gospel a mother who demands that Jesus give her 2 sons, James and John, thrones of authority to rule the Kingdom alongside Jesus.  Jesus shows incredible restraint and calmness with her, much more than the other 10 Apostles who grumble about such a request.  I have to wonder whether their upset is more about – why didn’t I ask first?

Jesus reminds them all that ruling is not about lording it over others.  To rule is to serve.  And James will learn that lesson for the rest of his life.  Later on in the Gospel, Jesus and the Apostles are kicked out of a certain town. James and his brother John ask – do you want us to call down thunder and lightning on them!  That is why they were called the Sons of Thunder.  They still had a lot to learn.

And so do we!  We need to remind ourselves that the greatest leaders are those who serve others! We need to remember that we are all earthen vessels and that power comes from God, not from ourselves.  We need to realize that we cannot spend eternity with Jesus if we can’t accept service, suffering and sacrifice (like James) in this life.

Creator God, wake me up!  Open my eyes and heart to the needs of my human family.  Help me to see and respond to their suffering, to their needs, without demanding any reward.  Aho!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Tuesday - Third Week of Easter Gospel – John 6:30-35 Knead to Know Cooking Class Over the past month or so, I gathered together a couple groups of my altar servers for a cooking class!   They learned not only my recipe for zucchini chocolate chip muffins but how to make them from scratch!   And, YES, they took home their finished products, or at least the muffins they didn’t wolf down as soon as they came out of the oven!   It was a fun, wonderful (and messy) experience!   Who knew that cracking eggs and measuring out flour could be so ‘untidy’.   But it brought home the lesson that, in order to get those yummy muffins, it takes time, effort and a heaping cup of patience. And it reminded me not only of their loyal service but those long months of Covid when they missed their Mass ministry.   So from time to time during the pandemic, I stayed in touch with them by dropping off goodie bags filled with chocolate chip cookies, zucchini chocolate ...
Read more
Image
  Feast of the Presentation Gospel – Luke 2:22-40 We Are Family Church of St. Joseph, Nazareth 5 extremely short stories to start the day! Once all the people in a village decided to pray for rain. On the day of prayer, all the people gathered, but only one boy came with an umbrella. That is faith. When you throw babies in the air, they laugh because they know you will catch them. That is trust. Every night we go to bed without any assurance of being alive the next morning, but we still set the alarm to wake up. That is hope. We plan big things for tomorrow in spite of zero knowledge of the future. That is confidence. We see the world suffering, but still, we get married and have children. That is love. Faith, hope, love, confidence and trust!   Sounds like a perfect list of values/virtues for a happy family! Today’s Gospel tells us of another family – the Holy Family going up to Jerusalem with the baby Jesus to present Him to the Lord in ...
Read more
Image
  Second Sunday of Easter   Gospel – John 20:19-31 Faith and Family Us Decades ago, when Jaime was maybe 7 or 8 years old, I was having some stomach issues, bad enough to spend some time in the hospital to figure out what was going on.   Finally, one morning, with Jaime and Ginger in the room, the doctor comes rushing in to tell me in these overly blunt words – you have cancer, we will perform surgery today and start you on chemo treatments tomorrow!   After I got over the initial shock, I basically had 2 reactions!   First, how dare you blurt out such a diagnosis with our little daughter in the room without even consulting us beforehand.   How disrespectful! How insensitive!   And secondly, my personal health, or lack thereof, was the last thing on my mind.   All that mattered to me was Ginger and Jaime and how all this would affect them! Some things never change!   Truth be told, after all that stress and worry, his diagnosi...
Read more