Homily for Tuesday, Week 7 of Ordinary Time

Homily for Tuesday

Week 7 of Ordinary Time

May 21, 2024
James 4: 1-10
Mark 9: 30-37
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

“You do not possess because you do not ask” (Jas 4: 2).

James speaks of our divided hearts, pointing to a desire to possess riches or to wield power as the source of war and conflict.  On a smaller scale, we wage war too, acting like the 12 in today’s gospel, considering our own greatness and trying to manifest it (Mark 9:34).

We know that’s not what Jesus desires.  We know that’s not the way to our own peace and contentment.  What would James have us ask for?  What ought we want to possess?  He suggests the grace of submission to God (4:6-7), i.e., putting ourselves into God’s hands instead of trying to stuff our hands with material goods.  He decries our being of 2 minds (4:8); rather, we ought to be single-minded—focused on God, humbling ourselves before him (4:6), focused on our littleness alongside Jesus:  to be, like him, “the last of all and the servant of all” (Mark 9:35).  To be like Jesus is to possess all we need, and it’s a grace to ask for.