Open with a prayer: Loving God, you ask us to believe that, in accepting the cross, we will come closer to you. Help us to understand the mystery of the cross through the example of Jesus. Speak your Word to our hearts as we reflect and pray together during this time. We ask this through Jesus, who obediently took up his cross for our redemption. Amen.
Sharing of Life: What are you most and least grateful for this week?
Facilitator reads focus statement: The first reading speaks of a mysterious suffering servant. In the gospel, Jesus presents us with a seventh lesson on discipleship, namely, servant leadership. The second reading is a beautiful statement about the humanity of Christ, which should give us confidence when we approach him.
Now read the readings, pausing briefly after each one.
FIRST READING: Isaiah 53:10-11
The opening words, "The Lord was pleased to crush him in infirmity", could leave us with a pretty cruel and nasty image of God. We need to remember that what pleased God was not the suffering of the servant; but rather the servant’s willingness to carry out his mission – even if it meant suffering and pain. God was pleased to use the servant’s suffering and sacrifice to bring good to many people – just as God used the suffering and death of people like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. to bring justice and liberation to many people. Or, just as God used the sacrifices of Mother Teresa to bring dignity to many who had lost their dignity.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM 33
This psalm might well have been on the lips of the Suffering Servant or Jesus himself during his passion. It is a prayer of trust from one who has pondered deeply God’s love and the promise to save God’s faithful ones. The assertion that the Lord will "deliver their soul from death" takes on new meaning in the context of these readings, which speak so graphically of the paschal mystery through which God offers deliverance.
SECOND READING: Hebrews 4:14-16
This reading contains a double exhortation to hold fast to faith and to approach the throne of grace with confidence. Jesus’ exalted state has not distanced him from us. On the contrary he knows our limitations. As a man he shared them with us. As an authentic human being he carries all of the members of the human race and their needs with him to the heavenly throne of God. The second exhortation has to do with our relationship with Christ and how that should give us great confidence to approach God’s throne boldly.
GOSPEL: Mark 10:35-45
This gospel is filled with misunderstandings, paradoxes and reversals. James and John seek places of prominence in Jesus’ kingdom and Jesus informs them that real prominence is found in service, not in wielding authority over others. The gospel shows how little the Apostles had come in their understanding of the nature of true discipleship. When they assert that they can drink from his cup and share in his baptism, they have no idea of the implications of their answer. The "cup" and "baptism" are references, of course, to Jesus’ suffering on the cross. For the disciple this baptism in time will involve the same daily dying of humble and selfless service – the lesson of discipleship being taught in today’s gospel. In the Kingdom that Jesus is inaugurating, true greatness will involve a willingness to be humble servants of others.
FAITH SHARING QUESTIONS
1. What verse, idea, or image spoke to you most in the readings? Why?
2. Do some of the stories or verses that you read in the Bible cause you to wonder if God is the loving person that we say he is? (See the opening words in today’s first reading.) How do you deal with verses that portray God as cruel and punishing?
3. Do you find it easy or hard to believe that Jesus "was tested in every way" that we are? How hard is it for us to believe that Jesus was fully human? What does this mean to you?
4. The world pushes us to climb the ladder of success and to be powerful. Christ tells us to be humble servants. The world tells us "great" people are those with prominent positions. Jesus tells us that great people are those who humbly serve others. How do you reconcile these opposites in your heart?
5. What are examples of ways we can try to "lord it over" others in our church family? Is being important, important to you? If not, how have you overcome this very human tendency?
RESPONDING TO THE WORD
Name one way you can act on or respond to today’s readings. Suggestions: In your family and community, seek to relate to others with a humble servant’s heart. Serve the needs of someone who is hurting or pray for people crushed by infirmity.
CONCLUDE WITH PRAYERS OF PETITION AND INTERCESSION