SOURCE: The Jesuit Post
2024 HOMILY – Jesus tells us that the greatest will be the least. Brian Kemper, SJ, reflects on embracing Christ’s call to self-forgetfulness in service to others. Based on the readings from the Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time.
SOURCE: Archdiocese of Brisbane Homilies
2024 HOMILY – Selfless service, as exemplified by Jesus’ humility and sacrifice, is crucial for fostering unity and love within our communities.
- 00:00 Serving others selflessly, as Jesus taught, is essential to overcoming disunity and ego in our communities.
- 01:10 Jesus exemplifies profound humility by choosing servitude and obedience, even to the point of death on a cross.
- 01:45 Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross demonstrates that everyone matters equally to Him, emphasizing His inclusive love for all.
- 02:04 Embrace readiness to serve, as Jesus transforms us from slaves into children of God, empowering us to support one another in our spiritual journey.
SOURCE: Fr. Peter Hahn Archive of Homilies
2018 HOMILY – True greatness and fulfillment in life come from selfless service to others and a deep communion with God, transforming suffering into opportunities for spiritual growth and eternal glory.
SOURCE: Fr. Jude Thaddeus Langeh Basenbang
2018 HOMILY – True leadership in Jesus’ kingdom is characterized by humility and selfless service, embracing suffering rather than pursuing power and glory.
SOURCE: Fr. Kevin’s Homilies
2021 HOMILY – True greatness is achieved through selfless service and humility, as exemplified by figures like Mother Marianne, who dedicated her life to caring for others without seeking recognition or material gain.
Bishop Robert Barron
SOURCE: Word on Fire
2021 SERMON – Friends, power and honor, in and of themselves, are not a bad thing, but we wreak havoc when we ask for them in the wrong spirit. When we beseech the Lord with our desires, let us ask for what God wants for us rather than what our egos have determined to be good.
SOURCE: Word on Fire
2024 SERMON – Friends, our Gospel this Sunday is taken from the tenth chapter of Mark, and it is high-octane spiritual business. Something pivotal is being laid out for us in this passage, and it has to do with power, suffering, and a willingness to go where Jesus goes.
Deacon Peter McCulloch
On Second Fiddle
Is.53:10-11; Heb.4:4-16; Mk.10:35-45
2021 EXCERPT: In his book Tuesdays with Morrie, Mitch Albom tells the story of a university basketball game. Their team is doing well, and the students are chanting, ‘We’re number one! We’re number one!’
But Professor Morrie is sitting nearby and he’s puzzled. He stands up and yells, ‘What’s wrong with being number two?’ The students look at him and stop chanting. [i]
Yes, what is wrong with being number two? So many people today think the only place to be is out in front, in first place. Anywhere else, they think, isn’t good enough. Yet, the great American conductor Leonard Bernstein was once asked, ‘What’s the hardest instrument to play?’ He replied, ‘Second fiddle’.
‘I can always get plenty of first violinists,’ he said, ‘but to find one who plays second violin with as much enthusiasm … now that’s a problem. And yet if no-one plays second, we have no harmony.’
The Cup of Greatness
Is.53:10-11; Heb.4:14-16; Mk.10:35-45
2024 EXCERPT: In today’s Gospel, Jesus says, ‘anyone who wants to become great among you must be your servant.’ What kind of servant is that? In the 1700s, the English Archbishop Thomas Secker said that God has three kinds of servants in this world.
- The first are the slaves who serve him out of fear.
- The second are the hirelings who serve him because they are paid.
- And the third are God’s sons and daughters who serve him because they are filled with love. This is the kind of servanthood we are called to.
Fr. Andrew Ricci
Christ Calls Us to Serve One Another
2021 PODCAST: The Lord takes a teachable moment and shows the disciples how greatness in Heaven is manifested by our service for others here on earth.
Fr. Austin Fleming
Are You Kidding Me?
2021 HOMILY: Fr. Fleming highlights one of the most fascinating exchanges in the whole bible, when James and John ask Jesus, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” How does Jesus respond? Find out in this week’s Homily. Additionally, Fr. Fleming provides seven concrete ways we can serve others, as Jesus serves us.
Ten Simple Ordinary Ways to Serve People In Your Daily Life…
2018 EXCERPT: The point of these scriptures, as the church has assembled them here, is that we are called to serve one another as Jesus served us. That’s a tall order, especially when phrased in terms of being “crushed in infirmity and affliction” and being a “servant to others, a slave to all.” Sometimes it’s helpful to work with the language scripture uses – not to water it down, not to dilute it – but to make it more accessible in the hope that we might be able to see a way to live what the Word asks of us. So, let’s look at what it might mean to be a servant of others, even a slave of all – in terms we can grasp and live up to.
Dominican Blackfriars
2015 EXCERPT: Today is World Mission Day. There are many in our world today who are profoundly suspicious of Christian missions, seeing them as a form of colonialism: imposing Christian ideals of service and humility ties up all too neatly with the subjugation, oppression and enslavement of peoples which is, as much today as in past centuries, all too common.
We can only overcome this suspicion if we begin by insisting that, whether in central Africa, the jungles of Latin America, the shanty towns of south east Asia or the English suburbs, if people are to receive the Christian Gospel with the rejoicing it deserves, they need be told first the good news that we are called and destined to share in the glory of Christ, seated at the right hand of the Father. We need to be told what our second reading tells us today: let us with confidence draw near the throne of grace
Fr. Charles E. Irvin
How Do We Respond To Suffering?
EXCERPT: When you examine the lives of many great human beings, one thing you will notice is how many of them faced suffering in their own personal lives. Some faced great suffering. Mother Teresa of Calcutta comes to mind. So does St. Therese of Lisieux, Abraham Lincoln, Ludwig van Beethoven, to mention only a few. I’m almost tempted to claim that all great men and women have had to deal with personal suffering, but I really cannot make that claim with any degree of certitude. Suffice it to say that personal suffering is a common theme found in the lives of many of our great men and women, and how they dealt with it was a significant factor in making them great.
Most of these great figures were not born into or simply given position, privilege, power, wealth, fame or beauty, although a few of them did in fact have some privileges given them simply by birth. Many of our great personages would tell us that they did not earn these things – that they did little, if anything, to acquire them because luck played such an important role in their lives. They happened to be in the right place and the right time.
Fr. Leon Ngandu, SVD
Fr. Leon Ngandu, SVD
We, Christian Missionaries, are Called to be the “Servants” and “Slaves” of All
EXCERPT: Today is World Mission Sunday. In prayer, we remember all missionary women and men who preach and live God’s Word worldwide. From our baptism, we all are missionaries as we are called to carry out the mission of the Church. Today’s Scripture readings teach us that to be disciples or Christian missionaries, we must be the “servants” and “slaves” of all. In our first reading, Isaiah prophesies about a servant who will suffer and give his life to justify many and bear their iniquities. Our second reading reminds us that Jesus was tested in every way, yet without sin. In the Gospel, Jesus teaches his disciples and us the condition for discipleship or missionary life: To be the “servants’ and “slaves” of all.
Fr. Joe Jagodensky, SDS
2021 EXCERPT: It’s got to be possibly the best question posed in the Bible. Oh wait, I’m wrong once again. It is the absolute best question recorded in the Bible. And, it’s asked by Jesus Christ.
“What do you wish me to do for you?” Unfortunately, the question seems to get lost while being distracted by hearing the jealousy of those two apostles. “I want to sit on His right!” “You always want to sit on His right side?” Sounds like the Smothers Brothers; except this time it’s James and John. Dumb and Dumber, anyone?
Fr. George Smiga
Riding Third-Class
2006 EXCERPT: In the days of the Old West long journeys were often accomplished by stagecoach. Much like traveling today, those who secured the use of a stagecoach could buy different levels of tickets. They could travel first class, or second class, or third class. But unlike traveling today, those levels of tickets did not indicate a different level of comfort, for all the people traveled in the same crowded and dusty coach together. The levels of tickets indicated instead different levels of responsibility. It was impossible for the stagecoach to bring along a maintenance group or support staff. Therefore, if there were some problem, if a wheel broke or the coach got stuck in the mud, it was up to the people who were on the coach to resolve it. Here is where the level of tickets came in. If you had a first-class ticket you could remain seated in the coach as other people dealt with the problem. If you had a second-class ticket you had to leave your seat to lighten the coach, but you still did not need to contribute any personal effort. If, however, you had a third-class ticket not only did you need to leave your seat but you had to remove your coat, plant your feet in the mud, and push to get the coach out of the ditch. Those who had third-class tickets had to get involved. They could not stand back. They could not watch as others did the work.
Fr. Anthony Ekpunobi, C.M.
Msgr. Joseph Pellegrino
How To Be A GOAT
2024 EXCERPT: There is an expression in the world of sports that a particular player deserves to be called the GOAT. Now years ago, if an athlete was called a goat, it meant that his performance at a game was so poor that he bore much of the responsibility for the team losing. But that is not how the term goat is used now. To be a goat is to be the Greatest of All Time. Tom Brady, the former quarterback of the New England Patriots and
Tampa Bay Buccaneers is often referred to as the GOAT. People may claim that Michael Jordan is the GOAT in professional basketball. Others might say that the title GOAT belongs to LeBron James.
Some athletes are far from being GOATS, but act as though they were. They
have an entourage of people who are continually telling them how wonderful they are. They lord it over their teammates as though the others were second rate citizens in their world of wonderfulness.
Msgr. Charles Pope
No Cross, No Crown
2021 EXCERPT:
In the Sunday Gospel, the Lord Jesus speaks of crosses and crowns. The apostles have only crowns in mind, but Jesus knows the price of the crown. So, He must teach them and us that crowns—the things we value most—come only through the cross.
The apostles (and we) just don’t understand, no matter how clear Jesus is or how often He repeats Himself.
Let’s look at today’s Gospel in three stages.
I. Misplaced Priorities
II. Major Price
III. Medicinal Prescription
IV. Pricey Prescription
V. Powerful Possibility
Bishop John Louis
2021 EXCERPT: n an European country in the year 2012, a woman who had received the national best worker award was later stripped of the honour. This was because, it was later detected that she actually did not show up for work half of that year. This led to a further investigation which in turn revealed that the three top members of the award’s panel of judges were her relations. Certainly, this woman sought honour first and not service first, and eventually lost the honour.
Similarly, in today’s gospel reading, the two sons of Zebedee (James and John) sought honour first – to sit at the right and left hands of the Lord in his kingdom – without first engaging themselves in the service that might bring them that honour. Jesus, however, took the occasion to teach that we should seek first service, not honour:
Fr. Michael Chua
2018 EXCERPT: If you are worried about sharing a cup because it can make you sick, the context of our Lord’s request is far more insidious. Sharing a cup with the Lord can get you killed! When the Lord asked His disciples if they were willing to drink from the same cup that He would be drinking, He was making an allusion to an important position in the king’s court – the Royal Cupbearer. The Royal Cupbearer was an official of high ranking who enjoyed the King’s trust. He earned the position because he was regarded as being absolutely trustworthy. It is no wonder that he was often an intimate confidante of the king, as most drinking buddies are, who often shared some of his deepest thoughts and secrets with this person and perhaps getting some good piece of advice in return while enjoying a sip or several sips of wine from the cup. This official was honoured with a seat beside the king at his dinner table, a position many have coveted but few have had the privilege of being accorded. Thus, the Royal Cupbearer perfectly fits the bill of occupying the seat of honour which the two sons of Zebedee requested from the Lord.
One of the most profound witnesses of redemptive suffering was Pope Saint John Paul II. Karol Wojtyla, as a young man and even during the early years of his pontificate, was a picture of health, vigour and vitality. However, in 1981, he suffered an assassination attempt in Rome. In the early 90s, however, a series of health problems began to take their toll. Describing the Holy Father in the fall of 1998, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger stated: “The pain is written on his face. His figure is bent, and he needs to support himself on his pastoral staff. He leans on the cross, on the crucifix….” Despite the visible pain, he carried his suffering in a prophetic manner. His courage and perseverance in carrying out his activities as pope, despite his physical afflictions, was a heart-lifting example for all of us.
In 1984, he published the apostolic letter “On the Christian Meaning of Suffering.” When confronted with suffering, most of us desperately seek answers to the question ‘Why’? Why me? Why now? The pope responds by telling us, that Christ does not really give us an answer to such questions, but rather a lived example. When we approach Christ with our questions about the reason for suffering, says the pope, we cannot help noticing that the one to whom we put the questions “is himself suffering and wishes to answer…from the Cross, from the heart of his own suffering…. “Christ does not explain in the abstract the reasons for suffering,” he points out, “but before all else he says: ‘Follow me!’ Come! Take part through your suffering in this work of saving the world… Gradually, as the individual takes up his cross, spiritually uniting himself to the Cross of Christ, the salvific meaning of suffering is revealed before him” (#26).
Fr. Vincent Hawkswell
2024 EXCERPT: God’s service demands suffering, as the First Reading suggests, but “out of his anguish,” the one who serves “shall see light; he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge.”
Our supreme example is Christ, who suffered for all of us. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet is without sin,” says the Letter to the Hebrews.
Whenever and however God asks us to serve, he gives us the strength to do what he asks. All we have to say is, “Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.”
Fr. Denis J. Hanly
Fr. Tommy Lane
Jesus Paid the Ransom for Our Sins
EXCERPT: Jesus’ challenge after his third passion prediction was, “whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant.” (Mark 10:43). So just as Jesus gave his life for us, Jesus expects us to give our lives in some way by being servant, by helping others. At Mass, above all, we celebrate Jesus giving his life in ransom, in exchange for us. The Jewish leaders, Pilate, and the Roman soldiers were the ones making the decisions about Jesus’ suffering and death but the reality is that our sins crucified Jesus. Jesus paid the ransom for our sins. Even if you were the only person in the world, he would do it for you. How precious you are to Jesus. He gave his life, his body and blood, for you. We are reminded of this during the consecration at every Mass when we hear Jesus’ words during the Last Supper, “This is my Body which will be given up for you…This is…my Blood…of the new and eternal covenant which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
Fr. John Kavanaugh, S.J.
Lording It over the Rest
EXCERPT: Most of us have heard of the contrast between “Christology from below” and “Christology from above.” This opposition sneaks into most theological discussions, whether they are about dogma, scripture, morality, mission, or salvation.
Most of us are not theologians, but we can still sense what it is all about. The “above” emphasizes the divinity of Christ, the transcendent; the “below” emphasizes the full humanity of the Jesus of history.
Christology from above is the “old” way of thinking. It presumes that God, from above, enters history in Jesus, the eternal Word made flesh. Its strongest insights support our intuitive recognition of human inadequacy. It demands an admission that we are not enough. It calls for intervention and assistance from a reality beyond our own.
Bishop Frank Schuster
When God Says No
2021 EXCERPT: At a fundamental level, however, I believe James and John in our Gospel reading represent all of humanity. It feels like, sinners that we are, we have an annoying way of always crying out to God, “We want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” Jesus’ patient response is, “I will die for you.” “I will die for you”. That is Jesus’ response. We should remember that in
times of frustration when God isn’t giving us whatever we are asking for at any given moment. Jesus’ response is, “I will die for you and raise you up on the last day.”
That is where we are going. This is the God we believe in. Growing in discipleship, however, involves accepting that when God answers our prayers, God might not answer our prayers exactly the way we expect. Indeed, when God answers our prayers, “no” is an answer too, as frustrating as that can be at times. Or as my friend discovered after the breakup of a longterm relationship, borrowing now the wisdom of Garth Brookes, “Some of life’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.” Can it be that our Father in heaven knows what is better for us than we do? Can it be that God’s eternal plan for us is better than what we can possibly fathom in this life?
Redefining Success: Shifting Focus from “I” to “We”
2021 EXCERPT: The apostles remind me of the man who leaves a party very drunk. He staggers along a street and bumps into a telephone pole, and falls to the ground, He keeps getting up and hitting the same pole. Finally, he sits on the ground and with great resignation says to himself, what can I do? I am all fenced in.
Many times we, like the disciples, could say we are all fenced in: fenced in by our need for recognition, or fenced in by competition. Fenced in by the world where I have to watch out for myself. Fenced in by the attitude that, if I do not assert myself, no one will. Fenced in by my needs, ambitions, addictions. Sometimes we can become so caught up in fulfilling our own needs that we forget those around us; just as the disciples were so preoccupied by their wants and ambitions that they paid no attention to what Jesus was telling them about His death.
