{"id":3162,"date":"2015-10-18T14:30:24","date_gmt":"2015-10-18T21:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/?p=3162"},"modified":"2016-10-10T12:59:17","modified_gmt":"2016-10-10T19:59:17","slug":"what-are-you-asking-homily-for-the-29th-sunday-in-ordinary-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/what-are-you-asking-homily-for-the-29th-sunday-in-ordinary-time","title":{"rendered":"What Are You Asking? – Homily for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Truck<\/a>When I was about eleven or twelve years old,
\nI was fascinated by the life of long-haul truckers.
\nI used to listen to songs by Red Sovine and Merle Haggard,
\nwatch movies like Smokey and the Bandit<\/em>,
\nand dream about living life on the road.
\nOne year I asked my mom and dad for a CB radio for my birthday
\nso I could talk to all the truckers on the road from my room at home.
\nTheir response was similar to Jesus\u2019 answer to James and John:
\n\u201cYou do not know what you are asking.\u201d
\nAnd it\u2019s true. I had no idea what I was asking.<\/p>\n

Have you ever asked for something
\nnot realizing the full implications of your question?
\nMaybe when you were younger
\nyou asked your parents if you could have a dog or a cat or a fish.
\nThere was no way they could explain to you
\njust how much work it takes to care for an animal.<\/p>\n

And there are those of us here who have popped a certain question.
\nWhat if when we asked \u201cWill you marry me?\u201d
\nthe response we got was,
\n\u201cYou don\u2019t know what you\u2019re asking.\u201d
\nBut after all, how can a young couple possibly know
\nhow their lives will be affected by that question?
\nBrenda and I have been married twenty-five years,
\nand we\u2019re still finding that out.<\/p>\n

When James and John ask Jesus to be seated in glory
\non his right and left,
\nJesus tells them, \u201cYou don\u2019t know what you\u2019re asking.\u201d<\/p>\n

What does Jesus mean by that?
\nOn one level he means that they don\u2019t know the full implications
\nof getting what they want.
\nThey don\u2019t yet fully realize what it means to be associated with Jesus.
\nAfter all, as spiritual writer Fr. Timothy Radcliffe puts it,
\nJesus\u2019 throne of glory is the cross,
\nand it\u2019s two thieves that are destined to be on his left and on his right.
\nSo Jesus tells them, \u201cYou don\u2019t know what you\u2019re asking,\u201d
\nbecause they don\u2019t see the full picture.<\/p>\n

But on another level, there\u2019s something else they don\u2019t know.
\nThere\u2019s another meaning to Jesus\u2019 question,
\n\u201cYou do not know what you are asking.\u201d<\/p>\n

They don\u2019t realize why they\u2019re asking the question.
\nIn other words, they\u2019re not aware of the question behind their question.
\nWhy do they want seats of honor in the first place?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy for us to be hard on James and John
\nand see them as overambitious, self-serving and power-hungry,
\nbut the reality is we all have the same temptation.<\/p>\n

We all have a desire to be honored,
\nto be seen as important, to be publicly recognized.
\nThat\u2019s why there\u2019s a baseball Hall of Fame,
\nwhy we hold award ceremonies,
\nwhy we name buildings after donors.<\/p>\n

What is that desire?
\nWhere does it come from?<\/p>\n

Think about the last time you hungered for recognition,
\neither for yourself or for someone you care about.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s behind that?<\/p>\n

Partly it comes from a need for meaning in our lives.
\nWe want to believe that our lives count for something.
\nWe want to know that our lives are worthwhile.<\/p>\n

And so we look to honor and recognition to be validated.<\/p>\n

I hear young people all the time talk about how much pressure they feel
\nto achieve at the highest levels.
\nThey grow up thinking
\nthat if they don’t make their mark in the world
\nthrough some grand gesture or accomplishment,
\nthen they don\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n

And then when we reach mid-life
\nwe look at where we are and where we\u2019ve been
\nand we wonder if we\u2019ve done anything important with our lives.
\nAnd even if we\u2019ve received awards or recognition or financial success,
\nit still doesn\u2019t feel enough.<\/p>\n

We are all a bit like James and John,
\nwanting a seat of honor at the banquet.
\nIt\u2019s true even of the other ten apostles.
\nThe gospel tells us they were \u201cindignant\u201d at James and John.
\nWhy?
\nBecause they beat them to the punch!
\nJames and John got to Jesus first.
\nThe other ten start to complain and so Jesus intervenes.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou wish to be great?\u201d he asks.
\n\u201cYou wish to be first?\u201d
\n\u201cYou wish to sit in honor at the table?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re don\u2019t know what you\u2019re asking.\u201d
\nIt\u2019s as if he\u2019s saying
\n\u201cWhat you really want is to be accepted,
\nto know that you matter, to be loved.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all any of us really want.
\nFrom the richest CEO to the homeless veteran, we all seek acceptance.
\nThere are other things wrapped up in it, like power and control,
\nbut at the end of the day it all boils down to wanting to be loved.<\/p>\n

And so what message does Jesus have for those of us seeking
\nthe place of honor at the banquet?
\nIf you want to be great, he says,
\nif you want to be first,
\nthen do not seek to be the guest of honor at the banquet,
\ndo not even seek to dine at the banquet.
\nRather, seek to be the waiter or waitress.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant;
\nwhoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is Jesus\u2019 response to us
\nwhen we seek to be honored or recognized.<\/p>\n

Being the servant involves an entirely different set of questions.
\nInstead of asking \u201cCan we sit on your right or on your left,
\nthe servant asks questions like,
\n\u201cHow can I help you?\u201d
\n\u201cAre you comfortable?\u201d
\n\u201cDo you need anything else?\u201d<\/p>\n

Look at Jesus\u2019 first words in today\u2019s gospel:
\n\u201cWhat do you wish me to do for you?\u201d
\nTo be a follower of Jesus means to be a servant.
\nIt means to wait on tables.<\/p>\n

The true disciple of Jesus recognizes
\nthat he or she is already important,
\nthat they already matter
\nby virtue of their creation by God.
\nAll of us are already as important as we ever need to be.
\nWe don\u2019t have to sit in the place of honor at the banquet table,
\nwe don\u2019t have to be recognized in front of thousands of people.
\nWe are already as important as we ever need to be.<\/p>\n

This is what we mean
\nwhen we say that we believe that all human life is sacred,
\nfrom the pre-born infant to the elderly person suffering from Alzheimer\u2019s.
\nIt\u2019s not what we do that gives our lives value,
\nbut rather that we are made in God\u2019s image.<\/p>\n

The follower of Jesus recognizes their own worth and the worth of others.
\nAnd it\u2019s by serving others that we acknowledge their dignity
\nand remind them of their value.
\n\u201cThe Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve.\u201d<\/p>\n

When we serve others, we validate their intrinsic worth,
\nwe affirm their dignity.<\/p>\n

And so there are two meanings to Jesus\u2019 statement,
\n\u201cYou do not know what you are asking.\u201d
\nAnd with each of those meanings is a challenge.
\nFirst, we are challenged to understand the implications
\nof being a true disciple.
\nWe are challenged to move from seeking an honored place at the table
\nto being waiters and waitresses at the table,
\nto be servants.<\/p>\n

And second, when Jesus asks us \u201cWhat do you wish me to do for you?\u201d
\nwe are challenged to look at what lies beneath our desires
\nand to really know what we are asking for.<\/p>\n

This last challenge was driven home to me this week
\nthrough a meditation I prayed with the other All Saints teachers.
\nEach morning before the students enter the building,
\nwe teachers gather for prayer\u2014both here at the primary building
\nand also at the middle building.<\/p>\n

This year we\u2019re using a book of meditations called Challenge<\/a><\/em>,
\norganized and compiled by Jesuit priest Fr. Mark Link
\nand based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola.<\/p>\n

I would like to conclude by sharing with you the reflection
\nwe prayed a few days ago.
\nThis was found written on a piece of paper
\nin the pocket of a dead Confederate soldier.<\/p>\n

“I asked for health
\nthat I might do greater things;
\nI was given infirmity,
\nthat I might do better things…
\nI asked for riches,
\nthat I might be happy;
\nI was given poverty,
\nthat I might be wise…
\nI asked for power,
\nthat I might have the praise of men;
\nI was given weakness,
\nthat I might feel the need of God…
\nI got nothing I asked for,
\nbut everything I hoped for.
\nAlmost despite myself,
\nmy unspoken prayers were answered.
\nI am among all men most richly blessed.”<\/p>\n

http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/stpeter\/SP-2015-10-18-511.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a><\/p>

Subscribe: RSS<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was about eleven or twelve years old, I was fascinated by the life of long-haul truckers. I used to listen to songs by Red Sovine and Merle Haggard, watch movies like Smokey and the Bandit, and dream about living life on the road. One year I asked my mom and dad for a CB radio for my birthday so I could talk to all the truckers on the road from my room at home. Their response was similar to Jesus\u2019 answer to James and John: \u201cYou...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[349],"tags":[620,621,357,619,622,617,616,618],"class_list":["post-3162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homily","tag-cb-radios","tag-fr-timothy-radcliffe","tag-gospel-of-mark","tag-long-haul-truckers","tag-mark-link","tag-merle-haggard","tag-red-sovine","tag-smokey-and-the-bandit"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/truckersongs.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pOucj-P0","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3162"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3165,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3162\/revisions\/3165"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}