Hebrews 9:11-14;
Mark 10:32-45
Human beings have an amazing capacity to miss the point,
to become blind to truths that should be obvious. We often do that because we become so preoccupied
and distracted with our own agendas and desires that we ignore everything
else. That is especially the case when
the truth goes strongly against our inclinations by telling us what we do not
want to hear.
That is what James and
John did when they asked for choice positions of honor right after Jesus Christ
had told them that He was to suffer, die, and rise from the dead. They were apparently so consumed by their desires
for prominence and power that they refused to hear the Lord saying that He was
nothing like an earthly king. They
boasted of being prepared to follow the Savior without having any idea of what
that would mean. He responded by making
clear that the path to true greatness was to follow His way of selfless service. “For
the Son of man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as
a ransom for many.”
As we begin the
last week of Lent, it should be clear to us all that we have not earned a place
of honor in God’s reign. If we have practiced
the spiritual disciplines of Lent with any integrity and honesty, we will know primarily
our own weakness and brokenness. By
revealing how easily we are distracted and how enslaved we are to our
self-centered desires and habits, they show us that we cannot heal our own
souls. And if we have not devoted
ourselves to prayer, fasting, and almsgiving at all in the previous weeks of
Lent, we should confess that in humility and thus gain a greater awareness that
we stand in constant need of the Lord’s gracious mercy. “Lord Jesus Christ, Son
of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
Regardless of how
we have approached Lent so far, we must not become paralyzed with a sense of obsessive
guilt for not living up to a standard of perfection, for not making ourselves
worthy of the mercy of Christ. To do so is
simply a form of self-centered pride, for it is impossible to earn grace as a
reward for good behavior. Becoming great
among the Lord’s servants means laying down our lives for others, lowering
ourselves by placing the needs and interests of others before our own. That is the opposite of a self-centered
obsession to prove that we are worthy of anything.
Today we remember St.
Mary of Egypt, who had lived a grossly immoral life, but then gave herself up
in repentance for decades in the desert, where she became a remarkably holy
saint. Instead of continuing to gratify
her addiction to sexual pleasure, she died to self by rejecting everything that
was a hindrance to the healing of her soul through incredibly rigorous
repentance for the rest of her long life.
She knew that such disciplines did not somehow put God in her debt, but
were ways of opening herself to receive the gracious healing of the Lord, which
we never deserve.
St. Mary of Egypt
was not like James and John in trying to use the Savior to get what she
wanted. Instead, she freely obeyed a
divine command to turn away from fulfilling her obsessive desires by uniting
herself to the One Who offered His life as a ransom to free us all from slavery
to sin and death. Our Lord’s disciples ultimately
found victory over their passions in different ways, for they had to learn that
greatness in the Kingdom comes through selfless service to the point of
suffering and death, not by yearning after what the world calls power and
success.
In the remaining
days of Lent, we all have the opportunity to embrace our Lord’s way of selfless
service in relation to those we encounter on a regular basis in our families,
in our parish, at work, at school, and in our larger communities. We all have the opportunity to confess how we
have enslaved ourselves to self-centered desires and then to take the steps we
can to turn away from them. We all have
the opportunity to fill our minds with holy things and give less attention to
whatever fuels our unholy passions. We all
have the opportunity to follow the example of St. Mary of Egypt in doing what
it takes to find the healing of our souls.
If our Lord could make a great saint out of her, then how can anyone
remain paralyzed in guilt? Our great
High Priest offered Himself on the Cross and rose in glory on the third day in
order to save sinners, to restore all who bear His image and likeness. Thanks be to God, that includes even people
as broken as you and me. In the coming week, let us open the eyes of our souls
to this glorious truth through selfless service, humble prayer, and genuine
repentance.
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