May 17, 2016
The
6th Grade Camp that I facilitate for a small Catholic School in San
Diego is very loosely modeled after the TV show Survivor. This week we have two tribes competing all week for the
grand prize of perpetual bragging rights for the rest of their lives. The Green
Tribe, originally named Noah’s Ark, scrambled the letters and turned into
SHAARK ON, and the Orange Tribe, originally named Holy Spirit, now known as HII
SPORTLY. We have Tribal Challenges every day and the competitions range from
bubble gum blowing contests to intense team building challenges that have
emerged budding leaders, invoked tears, laughter, and even puking. Today we are
nursing grass burns and sick stomachs from barrel rolling down the meadow (more
than once), the tree swing spit out a tough little cookie named Andrea with
which Letty and I had a little too much fun wrapping her wounds like a mummy
and adorning her with multiple Band-Aids all over her face, and a make-shift
sling out of her orange bandana. Each tribe has their own spirit, their own
personality, their own strengths, and weaknesses. Right now the Green and
Orange tribes are tied, neck and neck, and I have been asked the question,
“Buttercup, which tribe is your favorite?” approximately 413 times!
Today’s
gospel feels like 6th grade camp and Jesus comes upon the apostles
in a debate of some sort. Sure enough…they were scrapping over which one of
them was the greatest. Grown men fighting over their pecking order with Jesus.
I told you it’s just like 6th grade camp! So Jesus took the
opportunity to teach one of the most memorable lessons in the gospels. Raise
your hand if you have ever been in a “careful what you ask for” predicament.
Jesus even sat down for this lesson, which is the official posture for any
Rabbi/Teacher, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and
the servant of all.” Bam! Servant of ALL. Next move…Yes, I really do mean ALL,
come here small child…come here squirrely little 6th grader. I bet
whatever child he called over was delighted to be picked by Jesus for the
kickball team, blushed at being chosen by the coolest camp counselor around,
and probably bragged all about it to their friends afterward. Grown men at the
top of the food chain being slaves to unruly little humans?? Absurd!
Apostolic
action is absurd according to the standards of the world, but Jesus teaches us
in today’s gospel that we need to rise above the standards of the world by
bending down to those considered less than. The kids up here at camp right now
are city kids and have never even seen a night sky filled with stars, or eaten
a s’more, or gone on a hike, or seen a deer, or had grass burns, or yelled from
the top of a mountain. They are weird, and wild, and wonderful, and
wonder-filled, and homesick, and growing up, and soon they will be teenagers
with lots of drama and lots of hormones and lots of challenges, but right here,
right now, they are eating popcorn in their pajamas and sniffling at the movie Lilo And Stitch (yes, the song “Aloha Oe”
made them cry) and I am their servant and it is well with my soul. I will
gladly allow them to spar over who is Buttercup’s favorite, because of course;
each one of them is my favorite. Jesus calls us to receive these little ones in
his name today and how lovely that I get to literally do that. As I receive
these little ones, I receive him, and I receive the one who sent him. Winning!
Reading 1 JAS 4:1-10
Beloved:
Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from?
Is it not from your passions that make war within your members?
You covet but do not possess.
You kill and envy but you cannot obtain;
you fight and wage war.
You do not possess because you do not ask.
You ask but do not receive, because you ask wrongly,
to spend it on your passions.
Adulterers!
Do you not know that to be a lover of the world means enmity with God?
Therefore, whoever wants to be a lover of the world
makes himself an enemy of God.
Or do you suppose that the Scripture speaks without meaning when it says,
The spirit that he has made to dwell in us tends toward jealousy?
But he bestows a greater grace; therefore, it says:
God resists the proud,
but gives grace to the humble.
So submit yourselves to God.
Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
Cleanse your hands, you sinners,
and purify your hearts, you of two minds.
Begin to lament, to mourn, to weep.
Let your laughter be turned into mourning
and your joy into dejection.
Humble yourselves before the Lord
and he will exalt you.
Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from?
Is it not from your passions that make war within your members?
You covet but do not possess.
You kill and envy but you cannot obtain;
you fight and wage war.
You do not possess because you do not ask.
You ask but do not receive, because you ask wrongly,
to spend it on your passions.
Adulterers!
Do you not know that to be a lover of the world means enmity with God?
Therefore, whoever wants to be a lover of the world
makes himself an enemy of God.
Or do you suppose that the Scripture speaks without meaning when it says,
The spirit that he has made to dwell in us tends toward jealousy?
But he bestows a greater grace; therefore, it says:
God resists the proud,
but gives grace to the humble.
So submit yourselves to God.
Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
Cleanse your hands, you sinners,
and purify your hearts, you of two minds.
Begin to lament, to mourn, to weep.
Let your laughter be turned into mourning
and your joy into dejection.
Humble yourselves before the Lord
and he will exalt you.
Responsorial Psalm PS 55:7-8, 9-10A, 10B-11A, 23
R. (23a) Throw your cares on the Lord, and he will support you.
And I say, “Had I but wings like a dove,
I would fly away and be at rest.
Far away I would flee;
I would lodge in the wilderness.”
R. Throw your cares on the Lord, and he will support you.
“I would wait for him who saves me
from the violent storm and the tempest.”
Engulf them, O Lord; divide their counsels.
R. Throw your cares on the Lord, and he will support you.
In the city I see violence and strife,
day and night they prowl about upon its walls.
R. Throw your cares on the Lord, and he will support you.
Cast your care upon the LORD,
and he will support you;
never will he permit the just man to be disturbed.
R. Throw your cares on the Lord, and he will support you.
And I say, “Had I but wings like a dove,
I would fly away and be at rest.
Far away I would flee;
I would lodge in the wilderness.”
R. Throw your cares on the Lord, and he will support you.
“I would wait for him who saves me
from the violent storm and the tempest.”
Engulf them, O Lord; divide their counsels.
R. Throw your cares on the Lord, and he will support you.
In the city I see violence and strife,
day and night they prowl about upon its walls.
R. Throw your cares on the Lord, and he will support you.
Cast your care upon the LORD,
and he will support you;
never will he permit the just man to be disturbed.
R. Throw your cares on the Lord, and he will support you.
Alleluia GAL 6:14
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
May I never boast except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
but he did not wish anyone to know about it.
He was teaching his disciples and telling them,
“The Son of Man is to be handed over to men
and they will kill him,
and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise.”
But they did not understand the saying,
and they were afraid to question him.
They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house,
he began to ask them,
“What were you arguing about on the way?”
But they remained silent.
For they had been discussing among themselves on the way
who was the greatest.
Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them,
“If anyone wishes to be first,
he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.”
Taking a child, he placed it in their midst,
and putting his arms around it, he said to them,
“Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me;
and whoever receives me,
receives not me but the One who sent me.”
May I never boast except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel MK 9:30-37
Jesus and his disciples left from there and began a journey through Galilee,but he did not wish anyone to know about it.
He was teaching his disciples and telling them,
“The Son of Man is to be handed over to men
and they will kill him,
and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise.”
But they did not understand the saying,
and they were afraid to question him.
They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house,
he began to ask them,
“What were you arguing about on the way?”
But they remained silent.
For they had been discussing among themselves on the way
who was the greatest.
Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them,
“If anyone wishes to be first,
he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.”
Taking a child, he placed it in their midst,
and putting his arms around it, he said to them,
“Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me;
and whoever receives me,
receives not me but the One who sent me.”
Beautiful and inspiring.
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