Saint James, Apostle – Readings
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 4:7-15; Matthew 20:20-28
The Gospel reading comes from Matthew. Jesus has just made the third prediction of his suffering, death and resurrection. Immediately afterwards, we are told that the mother of James and John approached Jesus with a request. When asked by Jesus what it was, she said:
Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.
After the first two predictions, the disciples had been very upset at the idea of their Master being put to death by the leaders of their own people. One gets the impression here that the disciples are coming to terms with this warning and are beginning to hear the last part—that he will be “raised on the third day”. And it looks as if James and John want to be first in line for the future that Jesus is talking about. What is interesting is that in Matthew, it is the mother who makes the request, while in Mark’s account, it is the two disciples who ask the favour.
In either case, it is clear that they show little real understanding of the spirit of Jesus. He tells them, in answer to the request:
You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?
Here, Jesus is clearly referring to his coming suffering and death. Obviously, not understanding his real meaning, they reply: “We are able.” In fact, when the time comes, they will be nowhere within sight, having run for their lives.
But Jesus does say to them:
You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left, this is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.
Yes, when the time comes they will be ready to give their lives for their Master. But even then, the places on the right and left of Jesus cannot be ‘booked’; they will go to those who most deserve them, to those who are closest in spirit to Jesus.
Not surprisingly, when the other ten disciples heard what was going on they were extremely angry. Not because they were shocked at the request, but because it was done behind their backs. One thinks that, given the chance, they would have done exactly the same!
So Jesus takes them all aside and gives them a lesson in what constitutes true greatness in his world. It is not a question of status or power. Greatness in Jesus’ world, in his Kingdom, comes to those who dedicate themselves most to the well-being of their brothers and sisters. And Jesus himself was a living example of this. He, the Son of God, came to serve and not to be served. His whole life, up to his last breath, was a mission of love and service given unconditionally to every single person. He died in shame and disgrace, a nobody. He totally emptied himself—for us. That is greatness. Of course, in time, James would learn this lesson and would follow his Master in giving his life for the sake of the gospel.
The First Reading is a wonderful passage from the Second Letter to the Corinthians. Here Paul speaks of the paradox of how the power of Christ’s message is communicated through people who are weak and are the objects of hatred and contempt.
…we have this treasure in clay jars [i.e. fragile and easily broken]…We are afflicted in every way…but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed… always carrying around in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. So death is at work in us, but life in you.
This is a picture of Paul himself, but also of James and of all the martyred missionaries in the history of the Church. They are a stimulus and encouragement for us to follow in their footsteps.
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Friday of Week 10 of Ordinary Time – First Reading
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 4:7-15
Having presented an impressive picture of the Christian as someone brighter than Moses’ reflecting the glory and beauty of God’s Word, Paul now goes on to the paradox which this situation raises.
He confronts the difficulty that his present existence does not appear glorious at all, that it is marked instead by suffering and death. He deals with this by developing a topic mentioned earlier, asserting his faith in the presence and ultimate triumph of life, both in his own and in every Christian existence, in spite of the experience of physical suffering and death.
Certainly, many of his critics would have called into question the image he himself offered to the world. And Paul is the first to make the admission:
But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.
The treasure is the glory that he proclaims and into which all those who hear and accept the message will be transformed. But the instruments carrying that treasure are very fragile, like the small terracotta bowls used for oil lamps.
He will make the same point later on in the letter in his famous passage about the mysterious “sting of the flesh” with which he was afflicted, saying:
…whenever I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Cor 12:10)
In doing the work of the gospel, Paul describes some of the troubles he has experienced, but their net outcome is that others have benefited:
We are afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed…
The picture is a negative one, but there is always an underlying experience of bringing help and salvation into people’s lives. As, of course, was the ultimate outcome of the appalling suffering and death of Jesus.
And so Paul concludes that we are:
…always carrying around in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.
What a marvellous saying! Jesus is the paradigm. Paul’s sufferings are connected with Christ’s and his deliverance is a sign that he is to share in Jesus’ resurrection. Even when battered and bruised and rejected, he is reflecting the life-giving suffering and death of Jesus. This is a saying that could be applied to many who have suffered for the gospel.
He continues in the same vein:
For we who are living are always being handed over to death for Jesus’s sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us but life in you.
In other words, his experience of suffering does not end in himself, but affects others. The Christ-like suffering which Paul experiences brings life to those to whom he brings the gospel. Here is a living out of the eighth Beatitude:
Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
(Matt 5:10)
All of this is an important clarification of what he meant earlier by the dazzling brightness of the Christian disciple and apostle. The greatest brightness is seen in the one who is ready to undergo every suffering and every indignity for the sake of Jesus. It is the thinking behind John’s Gospel where the evangelist sees Jesus’ last agonising moments on the cross as his moment of glory. It was at that moment that the presence of God in Jesus shone brightest. It was the centurion, seeing the dying and battered body of Jesus, who said:
Truly this man was God’s Son! (Matt 27:54)
So Paul makes no apology for all that he has done in Corinth. Quoting from Psalm 116, he says:
I believed, and so I spoke…
For him, there was no alternative. Like the Psalmist, he clearly proclaims his faith, affirming life within himself despite death and the life-giving effect of his experience upon the church.
And Paul continues:
…we know that the one who raised Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and will present us with you in his presence.
Paul sees God presenting Paul and his companions together with the Corinthians to Jesus at the final parousia. We may note the strong expression of unity and reconciliation between Paul and the Corinthians in spite of the difficulties between them. As he says:
Indeed, everything is for your sake, so that grace, when it has extended to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
Whatever people might say or think of him, Paul had only one aim: the glory of God and that as many as possible should know and acknowledge Jesus as Saviour and Lord. Undoubtedly, Paul had his faults—glaring faults. And some of these faults must have rubbed some people the wrong way, but as he will say later, it is precisely because of these that God’s message shone out more clearly through him.
The same can be said of us. Let us learn to see our weaknesses not as obstacles but as opportunities.
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Saints Cornelius, Pope and Cyprian, Bishop, Martyrs – Readings
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 4:7-15; John 17:11-19
The Gospel reading comes from Jesus’ long discourse at the Last Supper as found in John’s Gospel. It is part of the prayer that Jesus makes at the end of the discourse and is the part where he prays for his own disciples. He prays that they may be one as Jesus and his Father are one.
While he was still with them, he protected them, but now that Jesus is preparing to return to his Father, he prays that they, too, may share the joy that Jesus is going to experience. Jesus gave them the ‘word’ of the Father, the message of where true life was to be found and paradoxically, because of this, the world is full of hatred for them. It is because they do not identify with the spirit of the world any more than Jesus himself does.
At the same time, Jesus does not pray that they may be removed from the world, which needs so much to hear their message of life, but only that they be protected from the evil forces which pervade the world. And so Jesus prays that they may be consecrated in truth, the truth that comes from the Father and which has been mediated by Jesus.
And, with this protection, Jesus sends them out into the world in the same way that Jesus himself was sent into the world by the Father:
And the Word became flesh and lived among us… (John 1:14)
Cornelius and Cyprian lived in a world of division and hatred, both in the secular world and within the Church itself. They spent their lives bringing the truth of Christ to their world. They were attacked by members of their own Church and eventually fell victims of persecution by the forces of the emperors.
Our Church today still is the object of hatred and derision by anti-religious and secular forces and that is something we should be ready to expect. And it is not a sign that we should escape from that world, but rather stay within it and persevere both in word and action in communicating our message to create a world of love, service and sharing to replace one of hatred, domination and self-seeking.
In the First Reading from the Second Letter of Paul to the Christians at Corinth, he speaks of the paradox of being a Christian missionary:
We have this treasure in clay jars…
The message of the Gospel and the vision of life that it communicates is a treasure, but it is brought to the world in very fragile vessels, our weak humanity.
We are afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed…
And, Paul says:
…always carrying around in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies..
Paul elaborates on this:
For we who are living are always being handed over to death for Jesus’s sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our mortal flesh.
This indeed is the paradox of the Christian witness. The Church finds life and gives life most effectively through those who sacrifice their lives for the Message of the Gospel. We see this happening even in our own time.
It is, of course, the reason we celebrate the memory of such people as we do today in the persons of Cornelius and Cyprian. But we just do not remember and admire. We are also to be inspired and emboldened to follow in their footsteps. It is those who are ready to let go of their human life who will find true life and pass it on to others.
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