Tested, like Jesus, in the Crucible of Humiliation, 7th Tuesday (I), February 26, 2019

To listen to an audio recording of today’s Gospel, please click below:

• Today Jesus continues to stress with his disciples the same lesson they rejected in Caesarea Philippi (in the readings last Thursday and what would have been last Friday if not for the Feast of the Chair of Peter), that God the Father told three of them to listen to on Mt. Tabor (on Saturday), and that Jesus reemphasized as they were descending the mountain. He says for the second time, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise.” In response to this, they do not console him or even ask him questions to try to understand. Instead, they begin to debate who’s better than whom. It’s sad and ridiculous. But Jesus never tried to eliminate his followers’ ambition, but to purify it and direct it toward true greatness. He told them the path, which would be his path, the path of cruciform love: “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” To be great we must become great in loving service. And to illustrate exactly what he was describing, lest we interpret it according to our comforts, he took a child and said, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.” An infant is someone who cannot will to reward us, with whom we cannot engage in a quid pro quo. A child is not even able to thank us. While it’s true that whenever we love we receive more than we give and that those who love children receive so many blessings in return, Jesus’ point is that we need to love those who cannot reward us. That’s the type of service we’re called to give to which we’re supposed to aspire.
• This is one of the reasons why the Sisters of Life are so important, because you, Sisters, help us all and not just pregnant mothers in distress to receive children, including children the world doesn’t want, as we would receive Jesus and God the Father. You help remind us of the type of service to which we’re called. You show us the path to real greatness! Yours is in particular a message for the world, because many shudder before this sacrifice. Many young gift, professional, first-time moms have told me what a crucifixion it is to sacrifice all that they’re able to accomplish at work for the care of a baby at home; they often are tempted to feel that their life has less meaning, that they’re contributing far less, because they don’t realize what Jesus says about the path to greatness: far more important than what they could accomplish in a board room or classroom is what they’re able to achieve through loving, especially through loving the child through whom they also receive Jesus and his Father. Eventually, with encouragement, many professional women are able to grasp this, but many other women continue to struggle with aligning their ambitions with truly lasting achievement: real happiness comes not from achieving the standards of success of the world, but the standards of love of Jesus that he describes in today’s Gospel. Today we pray in a special way for women who struggle with the wisdom of the Cross, of self-denial, carrying the cross of humble agape, and following Jesus first by embracing him in the least among us.
• In the first reading from the Book of Sirach, we ponder the wisdom of the Cross, of this life of cruciform love. Today’s passage begins, “When you come to serve the Lord, … prepare yourself” not for a stream of consolation, but “for trials.” It then describes them: “time of adversity,” “crushing misfortune,” even “a crucible of humiliation.” These trials are all tests, meant to help purify us just as “in fire gold and silver are tested.” For that reason, while we’re in them, we should not think that God has abandoned us, but is helping us to learn how to be great, to learn how to love him and trust in him so that we might truly serve him and become the servant of all. So he tell us, “Be sincere of heart and steadfast, incline your ear and received the word of understanding undisturbed in time of adversity, wait on God with patience, cling to him, forsake him not, … accept whatever befalls you, be steadfast when sorrowful, be patient in crushing misfortune, trust God and God will help you … and direct your way. Wait for his mercy, trust him and your reward will not be lost, hope for good things, love him and your hearts will be enlightened.” Sirach reminds us “Study the generations long past” including the martyrs “and understand: has anyone hoped in the Lord and been disappointed? … Persevered and been forsaken? … Called upon God and been rebuffed?” God “save in time of trouble and is a protector to all who seek him in truth.” This is the type of trust in trial we witness in Jesus when he was fulfilling today’s Gospel words on the Cross. In Psalm 22 and 69 which he cited in his words “My God, why have you forsaken me?” and “I thirst,” they both finish with hymns of trust and praise. The crucible of humiliation is God’s means to help make us great like Christ.
• Early this morning I had the chance to ponder this crucible of humiliation with all of the stories that have come out about Cardinal George Pell in Australia, who was found guilty by an Australian jury of abusing two boys in the sacristy of the Cathedral of Melbourne in December 1996. Because there was a gag rule about the trial, none of the details were able to be published until today, but it’s quite clear from the trial that it would have been impossible for him practically to commit what he was accused of doing. Any reasonable person would be able to find not just reasonable doubt of guilt, but much evidence that he was innocent. He was accused of abusing two choir boys in a sacristy within six minutes after a big Sunday Mass while still in his vestments, but the Cardinal produced a series of witnesses saying he would never be alone on a Sunday, he would be outside of the Cathedral after Mass greeting people, not in a sacristy, and that the boys whereabouts would have always been known because immediately after they had processed out of Mass they needed to process to practice. Regardless, it appears that the accuser was believed, despite all of the disproven evidence, despite the lack of other accusers for what would have been one of the most desperately cavalier abusers imaginable: if someone is so desperate as to try to molest two children in a heavily trafficked sacristy on a Sunday in his vestments, don’t you think he would have had a whole history of such actions and scores of other victims? Now Cardinal Pell is in a crucible of humiliation, and with him the Church in Australia and across the globe. Today the words of Sirach take on new meaning, both in terms of the tests each of us will receive, but also how the Lord will not abandon us. How ironic that the father of lies gets to rejoice on the day on which Jesus’ words about welcoming little children in his name — something that Cardinal Pell sought to do and help the Church do by fighting against abuse, rather than committing it — are proclaiming in the Church! Jesus, himself, was falsely accused. Jesus, himself, experienced the crucible. Jesus, himself, experienced liberation by God the Father, but only after his death. We pray for Cardinal Pell and for the Church, that we might live this in a way that will help us to commit our lives to the Lord who will help us, and cooperate with the Lord’s desire to bring good out of evil.
• Today as we get ready to receive the foremost outpouring of God’s love and service in giving us himself in the Eucharist, we prepare ourselves for the trials that come today — albeit less than what Cardinal Pell has needed to endure — with justice and awe, sincerity and steadfastness of heart, patience, love, and hope, ambitious for the chance with Christ to become least and a servant of the rest and to welcome, by the power of the Holy Spirit, every child of God no matter how small as we would welcome God the Son and God the Father!

Reading 1 SIR 2:1-11

Responsorial Psalm PS 37:3-4, 18-19, 27-28, 39-40

Alleluia GAL 6:14

Gospel MK 9:30-37