Is. 53: 10-11; Ps. 33:4-5, 18-20, 22; Heb. 4:14-16; Mk. 10:35-45

Jesus came to serve by giving his very life “as a ransom for many”.  We too are called to serve by the way we live our lives in imitation of Christ.  Who is the “servant” spoken of in Isaiah who “gives his life as an offering for sin”?  It is Jesus.  We are “justified by his suffering” not to boast for his cross but to pick up our cross and follow his call to serve. We go forth in Jesus and call upon him in our time of trial knowing how he suffered and died for us.  With confidence we cry out “Jesus, I trust in you!” 

When we approach the “throne of grace” we receive both uncreated grace and created grace.  Grace represents the free gift of Jesus and from Jesus.  In the sacramental life of the Church Jesus gives of himself to us, his uncreated grace that is transformative of our very being.  Simply said, receive the sacrament and receive Jesus himself.  He is the throne of grace from whom we receive from Jesus, mercy and timely help through his created grace working through humanity who is created and called to serve the greater good.  This is Jesus’ prayer of unity to God that we may all be one in him.

James and John come to Jesus in a spirit of a child, “do for us whatever we ask of you”.  This is what a child wants from his parents before the “ask” question is given, to agree unconditionally.  A wise parent can only agree unconditionally to their love of child, otherwise there is no “blank check”.  James and John’s request to be first is put to the test “Can you drink of the cup”.  Even though they do not know what they are accepting, Jesus accepts their openness to the “cup”.  It is a cup of sacrifice, suffering and even death.  Jesus however also gives us a sense that there is a plan at work, the plan of salvation that has a place at his right and left “for those whom it has been prepared.”  What are we to think then when it comes to us?

We are included in this plan of salvation and there is a place prepared for us at the table of the Lord but the invitation includes the call to “come and follow” him.  We are called to serve in his footsteps what has been prepared for us to fulfill.  The Lord places us in position to do his will but we have to respond to the call.  When we do we open the gates of heaven to receive his grace.  When we deny him, he will not deny himself but we have denied ourselves the grace and blessing he desired to pour into us.  This is when we shall ask when did we see him hungry and suffering and denied to serve him.    

Our call is always to love God and love neighbor.  It is an act of being filled with his love and acting in charity through his love.  We give because we have received and it is just and right to do God’s will.  This is why we can say we receive uncreated grace from Jesus in giving of himself to us who is uncreated but we also participate in created grace in the call to serve through the gift of charity in the giving of ourselves as created beings.  This is why the Church strongly defended that Jesus is true God and true man that we too may come to be one with him.  The divine has taken on flesh that the flesh may now enter into the divine as a new creation. 

For this reason, receiving the word is only the beginning of the salvation plan.  The word must take on flesh, be incarnated into our being through the sacraments and produce the charity that gives life in return.