25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

My Dear People,

In the Book of Wisdom, the author tells exactly what will happen and what in actuality happened to Jesus. Not content with enjoying the pleasures of life, the ungodly go further: they persecute the just man because he is a constant reproach to them. They want to see if God, whom the just man calls his father, will protect and rescue him. He calls God his father? Let us see what protection God gives him. If God fails to come to his aid, then they are proved right, and the just man wrong. Their words reechoed in the insults offered by scribes and Pharisees to Jesus when he was on the cross.

Interestingly, the just man calls himself a “child of God”. This is something new in Jewish thinking, because prior to this it was the entire people of Israel or their representative who was considered a “son of God”. But in the later books of the Old Testament we begin to see the fatherhood of God towards every just person. The title of “child of God” is applied to all the righteous, and more properly to the Messiah, who is the Righteous One.

In some translation the Greek word pais which it translates as “child” can also mean “servant.” The word “servant” in the Old Testament acquires special significance from the book of Isaiah forward, where the “Suffering Servant” appears. This man will, through his suffering, set Israel free of its sins. This dual meaning of pais prepares the way for the revelation of Jesus Christ, Son of God and servant of the Lord.

As the Book of Wisdom tells us a prophesy about the son of God. In the gospel Jesus tells his apostles in private that he is going to suffer and die at the hands of the elders and rise on the third day.

Jesus tells the apostles how authority should be exercised, not as the head and supreme lawgiver he is, he came to serve and not to be served. (This parallels the image of the suffering servant).

Anyone who does not strive to have this attitude of self- forgetful service not only lacks one of the main pre-requisites for proper exercise of authority but also runs the risk of being motivated by ambition or pride. “To oversee an apostolic undertaking demands readiness to suffer everything, from everybody with infinite charity,” (For this reason Isaiah depicted the image of the Messiah as the suffering servant).

To demonstrate to his apostles the humility needed in their ministry, he takes a child into his arms and explains the meaning of this gesture: if we receive for Christ’s sake those who have little importance in the world’s eye, it is as if we are embracing Christ himself and the Father who sent him. This little child whom Jesus embraces represents every child in the world, and everyone who is needy, helpless, poor or sick—people who are not naturally attractive.  

Yours in Christ,

Fr. Vincent Clemente

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