Message of Abbot Paul - Wednesday 16th March
Message from Fr Paul for Wednesday, 16th March 2022
It was a tremendous privilege to receive the body of our dear friend and neighbour, Dame Catherine Wybourne, just before Vespers last night. Sr Catherine, as many of you will know, was a Benedictine nun who reached out to hundreds of thousands online with her deep faith, penetrating wisdom, sharp wit and practical common sense. We will miss her, but her writings will still be out there for us to read over and over again. She will be buried together with the monks, an honour and a joy for us all, May her great soul rest in peace. Amen.
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Our Gospel today comes from Matthew, (Mt 20: 17-28), and is about humility, the mother of all virtues, as without humility, nothing else matters. It is intimately related to trust in God, charity and moderation, the forgotten virtue and the one that needs to be remembered most in our modern world. Jesus is going up to Jerusalem for the last time and on the way, he takes his disciples aside to speak with them. He says, “Now we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man is about to be handed over to the chief priests and scribes. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the pagans to be mocked and scourged and crucified; and on the third day he will rise again.” This is not the first time that he has spoken with them like this. Jesus is quite clear in what he says and graphically describes what will soon happen, so it comes as quite a shock when we see the reaction of two of this disciples in the next paragraph.
“Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came with her sons to make a request of him, and bowed low; and he said to her, ‘What is it you want?’ She said to him, ‘Promise that these two sons of mine may sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your kingdom.’ ‘You do not know what you are asking’ Jesus answered. ‘Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?’ They replied, ‘We can.’ ‘Very well,’ he said ‘you shall drink my cup, but as for seats at my right hand and my left, these are not mine to grant; they belong to those to whom they have been allotted by my Father.’” The first thing we might find odd is that Zebedee’s wife’s name is not mentioned and that she’s simply known as the wife of someone. Not only does she ask that her sons sit at the right and left hands of Jesus in his kingdom, but also wants him to promise her as much. She is as insistent as a mother can be. Did her sons put her up to it or were they embarrassed by an over-eager mother anxious for her sons to get on in life? What did she understand by the word kingdom, an earthly realm? I should imagine so, which is why he tells her that she doesn’t know what she’s asking for. Her sons are with her, so Jesus turns to them and asks them if they are prepared to die with him, which is what to drink his cup means. They say they are ready to do so, but they probably don’t understand either. Jesus is kind and gentle with his disciples, telling them they can certainly drink of his cup, but that the places in the kingdom will be allotted by his Father.
Next, we read of the indignation of the remaining ten. “When the other ten heard this, they were indignant with the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, ‘You know that among the pagans the rulers lord it over them, and their great men make their authority felt. This is not to happen among you. No; anyone who wants to be great among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be first among you must be your slave, just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’” Jesus’ aim is to keep the disciples together as a community of brothers, healing on any sign of disunity or dissention. They are not to behave like men in civil society who hanker after worldly power and position. Their behaviour is to be the exact opposite. They must be servants to one another. The word Jesus uses is slaves. They must serve one another and treat each other as equals, for that is what God’s children are. Jesus reminds them of his own behaviour. “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” If this is what Jesus does, should a disciple, should we act differently? We, too, are called to serve and to give our lives that others may have life, God’s life of grace, to the full.
