Twenty-ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time Year B

TO HAVE THE AMBITION OF PERFECTION

# The tablets of the law are mentioned in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy. God decided to seal a covenant with him and Moses was the intermediary. God enunciated ten Words and accompanied them with developments, the code of the covenant. Moses wrote all the words spoken by God on tablets of stone, recalling the law and the commandment that the people of Israel were to keep the Ark of the Covenant in a chest to be placed on a table and set up in a tent.

The people lost patience and trust and turned to other gods. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai carrying the two tablets, he realised that his people had broken the covenant they had just made and threw the two tablets to the ground, which broke. A new covenant was sealed between God and his people.Moses was instructed to carve two new tablets similar to the previous ones, on which the terms of the law were again engraved.

The words of Exodus 34-27 are the words of the covenant God made with Moses. Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the tablets, which were kept in the Ark of the Covenant as soon as it was built. This episode is recorded in Deuteronomy10. Today there are traditions depicting them in different parts of the world

The Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Mark

At that time, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus and said to him, ‘Master, what we are about to ask of you, we would like you to do for us.’ He said to them : ‘What do you want me to do for you ?’ They answered him: ‘Make us sit, one at your right hand and the other at your left, in your glory’. Jesus said to them: ‘You do not know what you ask. ’Can you drink the cup that I am about to drink ?’ To be baptised with the baptism in which I am about to be immersed ? ‘You do not know what you ask. Can you drink the cup that I am about to drink? Be baptised with the baptism in which I am about to be immersed. Can you drink the cup that I am about to drink ?

Can you be baptised with the baptism in which I am about to be immersed ? They answered him: ‘We can. Jesus said to them: ‘The cup that I am about to drink, you shall also drink it; and you shall be baptised with the baptism in which I am about to be immersed. As for sitting at my right or at my left, it is not for me to grant it; there are those for whom it has been prepared. ‘The other ten, who had heard, began to rail against James and John. Jesus called them together and said: ‘You know this: those who are considered leaders of the nations

They answered him: ‘We can. Jesus said to them : ‘The cup that I am about to drink, you shall also drink it; and you shall be baptised with the baptism in which I am about to be immersed.’ As for sitting at my right or at my left, it is not for me to grant it. There are those for whom it has been prepared . ‘The other ten, who had heard, began to rail against James and John. Jesus called them together and said : ‘You know this: those who are considered leaders of the nations’The command them as masters ; the great ones make their power felt.

But among you it must not be so.Whoever wants to be great among you will be your servant. Whoever wants to be first among you will be the slave of all. he did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many’. (Mk 10:35-45)

The ambition of the disciples

They were already on their way when Jesus was interrupted by the arrival of the rich man. Now they continued their journey, going up to Jerusalem, where Jesus suffered and died. Jesus, who knew perfectly all that was happening to him, like a fearless leader, walked at the head of the procession ; those around him, seeing Jesus’ determination, were struck with fear and hesitated or stopped; others who were not so close to him and who followed him were seized with fear.

Then Jesus gathered the twelve around him to tell them openly what trial they were facing. Mark is the only one to express the impressions of the people who accompanied Jesus. Although the disciples had not yet understood Jesus’ predictions about his suffering, they had a sense of the danger that threatened them.   This is the third time that Jesus introduced his disciples to the secret of his suffering. These predictions became more explicit and clearer, Matthew, Mark and Luke have carefully preserved them all with one accord. Jesus had a very clear and precise vision of everything that was happening to him ; he marked the exact moment with these words: ‘Behold, we go up to Jerusalem’.

 This was a moving demonstration of heroic courage and self-sacrificing love; it was clear proof of the absolute moral necessity of this death, which he willingly faced. If this sacrifice had not been the redemption of the world, it would have been a kind of suicide. 

According to Matthew, it was the mother of James and John, Salome, who first asked Jesus for her sons, while according to Mark it was the two disciples themselves who made the request. Of these two images of Christ’s sufferings: the chalice and the baptism, only the first is authentic in Matthew. If the chalice, in the symbolic language of Scripture, is the measure of good or evil destined for each person, baptism is an even more general and profound image of the suffering in which one must be completely immersed.

With this, Jesus shows the two disciples the way to glory and asks them : ‘Can you follow me there ?’ Moreover, he saw that moment of suffering as already having arrived. To suppress the ambition of his disciples, Jesus contrasted the spirit of his kingdom with what was happening in the kingdoms of this world. To do this, he used significant terms. First of all, he said of the princes of this world who thought they ruled, or should have ruled, or imagined they ruled. What did he mean.

After Jesus’ prediction, the actions of James and John seemed incomprehensible, if they were not proof that even the most intelligent disciples had not understood this prediction. Matthew shows that the disciples, despite all the painful prospects Jesus showed them, had no doubt that he would be the leader of a glorious kingdom in the near future. As for the false ideas they had, nothing could dispel them more than the instructions Jesus gave them on this subject.

Jesus with this? According to some interpreters, it would mean that these princes thought above all of establishing and asserting their authority, an authority that people recognised. Others say that these powerful men of the earth seemed to exercise great dominion, while they themselves were slaves to their passions. When Jesus had arrived in Jericho and was leaving the city with a large crowd, a blind man named Bartimaeus, hearing that it was Jesus who was passing by, began to cry out, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me !’

But some people tried to stop him from disturbing Jesus, but he shouted even louder : ‘Have mercy on me!’ Jesus stopped and called to the blind man, who got up quickly, took off his cloak and ran to Jesus. ‘What do you want me to do to you ?’.Jesus asked him : “Rabbouni, may I receive my sight !”. Jesus said to him : ‘Go, your faith has saved you’. And immediately he recovered his sight and followed Jesus. Only Mark makes known the name of this blind beggar and even the name of his father. Bartimaeus means son of Timaeus,

The blind man healed by Jesus became a well-known Christian in the Apostolic Church, so his name was preserved by tradition. Jesus was moved and stood at the head of his large procession when he heard the cries of this poor beggar; this compassion penetrated the hearts of the people. Nothing is more contagious than true love.

Deacon Michel Houyoux

Links to other Christian sites

Young Catkolics : click here to read the paper → 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B

Loyola Press : click here to read the paper → Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

VideoThe disciple ambition click here → https://youtu.be/CCptPm-J9MQ