Tuesday of the 7th Week in Ordinary Time
February 25, 2014 6:30am
There are two sentences that kind
of capture the message of today’s gospel for us.
Jesus has been telling the
apostles that he will have to suffer, die and then rise.
And the passage says: “They did not understand, and they were
afraid to question him.”
And then apostles are talking
about which of them is number one after Jesus and Jesus asks them what they are
talking about.
And the passage says, “They remained silent.”
So, they did not want Jesus to
talk anymore about his passion.
They just did not want to hear
anymore, certainly no details about this.
And they did not want to talk
about their discussion or argument.
They were embarrassed because
they were talking about who would eventually be in charge and yet he was still
with them.
Both sentences – “They were afraid to question him” and “they remained silent” point to one
reality.
They did not want to look at the
way of service, the way of giving of yourself for the good of others, the way
of doing that even to the point of giving your life.
This way of Jesus was and still
is counter-intuitive and counter-cultural.
They resisted looking at it and
probably we do too.
But, it is the way to salvation,
the way to God and to becoming God-like, and even the way to fulfillment and
happiness.
That is the very human response
of the apostles and that is the message of Jesus today.
