Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year B
During the course of his public ministry, Jesus would time and again turn convention upside down. Today’s Gospel is one of those occasions. During the past few weeks, we’ve heard Jesus talk to his disciples about his identity and the requirements for discipleship. The disciples didn’t quite grasp the implications of that discipleship. This culminated in last week’s Gospel, when James and John shot right past the challenges which would be involved to ask Jesus for the two places of honor in his kingdom, one on his right and one on his left. The call to service and the call to take up the cross didn’t seem to matter.
Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year B
If we call ourselves disciples of Jesus, then we must be totally in. We cannot follow the Lord half-heartedly. We will experience suffering in our walk with the Lord through our lives of faith. Discipleship is not easy; it costs us something! It can make us unpopular, make us experience mockery and rejection from the world. We are to be servants to those who are on the margins of our society, those who count for nothing in the eyes of the world. As Jesus’ disciples, we are to be their advocates!