8th Week of Ordinary Time, Thursday, 5-30-24, Year B
Readings: 1st Reading: Pt 2:2-5, 9-12; Psalm: 100:2-5, 10; Gospel: Mk 10:46-52
Theme: With Humility, Ask, Seek, and Find
“Once you were no people but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy.”
Through Jesus, we have been chosen, called, and saved. But we can only remain saved by living a holy life as Jesus commanded. St. Peter tells the early Christians that they are on a journey to heaven with many pitfalls and snares along the way. They must avoid these traps and be an example through their good conduct of how to live a righteous life in Jesus.
Part of living righteously is to give up our pride. When we have too much pride, we can become arrogant, and Jesus will rebuke us and withhold from us what we seek because we did not ask in humility and charity through Him and for others.
We see this in the contrast of today’s reading of Bartimaeus’s request of Jesus and of yesterday’s reading with James’s and John’s requests. Both asked Jesus to help them, to which Jesus replied in both situations, “What do you wish (want) me to do for you?” Bartimaeus was persistent in his request for Jesus to have pity on him, but he did it with humility. He asked to have his faith strengthened by being able to see Jesus for who He was, our Lord and God. He would then become an example to the others as he followed Jesus, praising Him along the way.
For the disciples James and John (Sons of Thunder), there was no humility, but instead, pride. Their pride caused them to become arrogant and demand that they take a place of honor next to Jesus in His kingdom. There was no consideration for who might already be selected for that honor. They were humiliated when Jesus refused their request and pointed out that they would learn humility by mimicking Jesus’s pending suffering and death. In that moment, they were an example of how not to live a life in Jesus and brought division among the disciples. James and John forgot Jesus’s parable of the seats of honor at the wedding banquet (Lk 7:7-9).
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Mt 7:7) But remember to ask, seek, and knock with humility, and for an increase in your love of Jesus and His Gospel, then and only then, will it be given, found, and opened for you.
Saint James Catholic Church 