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October 20th, 2024 | The 23rd Times

By October 16, 2024No Comments

A Message from Fr. Jay

Dear Friends,

If we try to look at the gospel through the lenses of our current culture, it might look odd that the mother and her two sons are too ambitious to place one on the right and the other on the left of Jesus while other disciples were also vying for such positions. Just in case, Jesus yielded to their requests. He certainly would be blamed for favoritism and nepotism because James and John are cousins of Jesus and they (also Peter) hail from Jesus’ hometown of Capernaum.

Popularity is an issue here. Becoming famous or a hero was a big achievement, seen as a sincere effort of any man at that time. Jesus wanted His disciples to become popular without any doubt but in a different way. He says, “it shall not be so among you”. Calling them to be different, Jesus tells them to add glory to Him by enduring sufferings and sacrifices not simply by circling around Jesus physically.

If we analyze the root cause of many problems of the world, it’s vanity (promised by popularity) that leads to deviation and destruction. I would like to borrow these few lines from the worksheet of last week’s Men’s Gospel Forum:

“When I am paid a compliment, I must compare myself with the little donkey that carried Christ on Palm Sunday. And I say to myself: if that little creature, hearing the applause of the crowd, had become proud and begun- jackass that he was- to bow his thanks left and right like a prima donna, how much hilarity he would have aroused! Don’t act the same! A Luciani (who later became Pope John Paul I)

The popularity of Jesus was through sufferings and sacrifice as foretold in the first reading ‘…because of his affliction he shall see the light in fullness of days, through his suffering, my servant shall justify many, and their guilt he shall bear.’ He became an expiation for our sins as a great high priest as we read in the second reading.

Am I ready to become popular in Jesus’ terms?

I am happy to welcome back all of you, my friends from the North, to be here for the season. I can already see an increase in the number of heads in the pews. Please stop by, say hi, introduce or reintroduce yourself and renew your relationship with me and all others around you in our parish community. Please live out and enrich your spirituality with the parish community by your active participation in several spiritual programs.

A gentle reminder: Please vote No on Amendment 4.

God Bless You,
Fr. Jay Raju

Reading I: Isaiah 53:10-11
Reading II: Hebrew 4:14-16
Gospel: Mark 10: 35-45