That feeling of supremacy! HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY OF THE EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR II (MAY 29, 2024)

HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY OF THE EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR II (MAY 29, 2024)

1Peter 1:18-25; Ps.147; Mark 10:32:45

That feeling of supremacy!

One feeling that seem to give people happiness in life is that they have some edge over their contemporaries. There is this consciousness of measuring ones achievement in comparison with what others have. With this mentality, people do not simply seek to grow so as to become better persons and make better impacts in their immediate environment, but so that they can feel greater/better than their mates.

This was how the ten disciples understood the request made by James and John to Jesus in the gospel reading. For them, James and John want to use their biological relation with Jesus as a ladder to climb over the other ten of them. This would have brought in mutual suspicion amongst the disciples. This mutual suspicion has destroyed some human relations in our world today. The moment people perceive that their colleagues have gotten some favours not based on hardwork but for some personal relationship with the authority, they begin to feel insecured or cheated.

Jesus clearly perceived the crippling in of this cankerworm and he quickly told his disciples that the only way they can reign with him in glory is by working and suffering with him on earth. Eternal life is free but we have to express our desire for it through righteous living. By this Jesus is teaching us how to maintain the unity in any group that we have been put in charge of. If there will be peace, there must first be justice. Justice comes into being when appropriate rewards or sanctions are given to those who are deserving of them.