By Fr. Antony Hughes
(Mark 10:32-45)
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen.
Glory to Jesus Christ!
I would love to make NEW SEEDS OF CONTEMPLATION by Thomas Merton the great Trappist monk and mystic required reading. It is a continual source of inspiration for me. I will refer to it in today’s sermon.
When James and John heard Jesus tell of his coming trial and death they responded as would anyone facing the death of a loved one, “We do not want to let go of you.” They posed the question like this, “Won’t you please permit us to sit at your right and left hand in the kingdom?” Remember also how shocking this would be for them. Most still expected the Messiah to be a regal and earthly ruler! I am not sure they were primarily looking for prestige or power as the other apostles seemed to believe. I think it was an earnest desire to stay close to Him. Still, the other apostles had their feelings hurt. Egos at the ready accusations were thrown. Jesus managed to calm the situation by explaining to them that if they wanted to remain close to Him they would have to share in the cup He would drink and the baptism He would undergo. It is clear that they did not understand what He meant. He spoke to them of something so beyond their experience they were unable to understand it.
Mary Magdalene experienced the same dilemma later when she discovered that the gardener she spoke to in the Garden of Gethsemane was really the resurrected Lord. When she reached out to hug Him He said “Do not hold me for I have not yet ascended to my Father.” What could that have meant to her? What does it mean to us? The question is how do we develop intimacy with Christ?
James and John did not understand yet who Jesus was, what he came to do and what the consequences of his coming would be. They knew something, but their understanding was incomplete and impartial. They interpreted His message as best they could, but were not prepared for the radical shift in consciousness that would be required. A new wind was blowing. A radical change was coming.
When we are faced with the unknown we look for something familiar to hold on, but in the spiritual life the opposite is called for. What we need to do is let go and learn. That is, to let go of familiar things and be open to whatever God brings. Old wine skins are inadequate for new wine! Mental attachments distort spiritual vision. It was Friedrich Nietzsche who opined that science contrives to keep us locked in a “simplified, thoroughly artificial, suitably constructed and falsified world.” His comments also apply to how our minds usually work. We try to avoid things that threaten our comfort, our personal beliefs and opinions, that don’t fit in the convenient and patently false worlds we create for ourselves.
~St. Mary Orthodox Church, Cambridge, MA (Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America) http://www.stmaryorthodoxchurch.org/orthodoxy/sermons/2008/stmaryofegypt.
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