"Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." James and John to Jesus, Mark 10:35
What hutzpah! Who would say such a thing to their teacher??? Well, James and John, apparently. Like in so many other instances of the disciples opening their mouths, they are clueless as to what Jesus is about. And it’s not like they didn’t know him. This scene is on the way to Jerusalem for Jesus’ last week. They seem to be outside Jericho, a hard day’s walk from their destination, as the next episode takes place there. They had tromped around Galilee with Jesus for about three years without a place to lay their heads and listening to parables of the Kingdom but apparently not understanding.
The other disciples are irate. Now some leaders might have been tempted to let James and John suffer the consequences for the attitudes at the hands of the others but Jesus takes this as a learning opportunity and delivers yet another lesson about the Kingdom.
Jesus says, “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.” This is pretty much how the secular world behaves. There is an ongoing jostling for power and status, even in homes. It has poisoned our nation with the notion of exceptionalism. Jesus says, “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.”
Our hierarchical Church has unfortunately also been infested with making their authority felt. As I have mentioned the last two weeks, Pope Francis is attempting to reform the Church’s power structure and nudge it towards being a servant church (America on the Synodal Church). As I understand it, the Pope wants to initiate a bottom-up process of issue discussion that would inform his decisions but then feed back down and up in a continual flow. The Opening Mass of Pope Francis’ Synodal Process is 5:30pm this Sunday, Oct. 17, at St. James Cathedral. Y’all come! (Or you can watch the livestream on Vimeo or Facebook @archdioceseofseattle.)
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Parish Collections July 1, 2021 – September 30, 2021.…....$ 96,522
The budget….…. $102,580
Last year at this time….…. $ 98,066