Are you -- are we -- ready?

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Yesterday I posted a thread on the Mass Readings. The title repeated the final words in the First Reading, from the letter of Peter: “Be holy as I am Holy”. Today’s readings continue to urge us in our following of Christ. To be holy we need to be ready to suffer as Christ suffered for us.

Listening to God’s Word in the Gospel, Jesus makes it clear to His Disciples:

Alleluia MK 10:45

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The Son of Man cane to serve,
and to give his life as a ransom for many.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel MK 10:32-45

The disciples were on the way, going up to Jerusalem,
and Jesus went ahead of them.
They were amazed, and those who followed were afraid.
Taking the Twelve aside again, he began to tell them
what was going to happen to him.
“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man
will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes,
and they will condemn him to death
and hand him over to the Gentiles who will mock him,
spit upon him, scourge him, and put him to death,
but after three days he will rise.”

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
came to Jesus and said to him,
“Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”
He replied, “What do you wish me to do for you?”
They answered him,
“Grant that in your glory
we may sit one at your right and the other at your left.”
Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking.
Can you drink the chalice that I drink
or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”
They said to him, “We can.”
Jesus said to them, “The chalice that I drink, you will drink,
and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized;
but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give
but is for those for whom it has been prepared.”
When the ten heard this, they became indignant at James and John.
Jesus summoned them and said to them,
“You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles
lord it over them,
and their great ones make their authority over them felt.
But it shall not be so among you.
Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant;
whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.
For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve
and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

So I ask myself and invite you to consider the question: Are you – are we – ready to give our lives as Jesus gave His? Are we ready to love one another as He has loved us? Then by God’s Grace, may we do the Truth we hear from Him, by the power of His Holy Spirit and through the intercession of Our Mother Mary and all the angels and saints. The daily Mass Readings can be found HERE