If we “get” the message of service vs. power, how can we help matters during conflicts?

If we “get” the message of service vs. power, how can we help matters during conflicts?

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 22, 2023
Helen Weber-McReynolds, RWCP
Isaiah 45:1, 4-8; 1 Thess 1: 1-5; Matthew 20: 17-28
 
           Have you ever had a conversation with someone and concluded later that they did not really understand or believe what you said? Sometimes it’s probably because they did not want what you said to be true. For example, when you tell a child that a planned trip to the zoo will not be possible because of bad weather on the scheduled day, but they still keep asking you when it will be time to leave for the zoo. They just don’t get it. They want to go to the zoo, so they choose to ignore you or disbelieve you or think wishfully that the trip will not be cancelled.
 
           It seems that is what happened with the apostles and Jesus in today’s gospel. The reading begins with Jesus graphically spelling out to his followers that he believed he would probably be cruelly executed by religious officials and government lawyers when they got to Jerusalem. This was the third such Passion Proclamation by Jesus in Matthew’s gospel. But the apostles were too preoccupied with power and privilege to take him seriously. They just don’t get it. Two of them, through their mother, asked if they could sit in the places of honor on Jesus’ right and left when his kingdom began. Jesus had by this time repeated over and over that his reign would not be like that of earthly kings. Finally he spelled it out for them once again. His reign was one of service, of leading by offering one’s life for others, even if it meant giving “life for life.” He had been teaching all along that happiness and meaning in life comes from loving and helping other people, which is passing on the love God has for us. But they just don’t get it.
 
           The terrorist attack on Israel and the consequences in Gaza and the surrounding areas remind us that we as a human family still just don’t get it. We have had war after agonizing war, and yet some still seem to want more. History has proven that violence causes only death and grief, yet the world keeps turning back to it. Jesus’ call to service and love still has not become a reality for everyone. The bombs are still flying. Antisemitic and anti-Islamic slurs and threats still cause our siblings in the human family to live in fear. Governments continue to spend their money on weapons, instead of food and services for their people.
 
           Why don’t we get it? Power and force are quick and tempting, while service and love are hard work. Diplomatic negotiations can take forever, but have proven to be only way to achieve authentic peace. Often they have to be repeated, as new conflicts come up.
 
           None of us are government diplomats, so we can’t directly control the situation in the Middle East, or Ukraine, or any of the other battleground areas of the world. But we can control our own lives. We can treat the people we encounter with respect. We can serve one another with humility. We can pray and work every day to control the violent tendencies in ourselves. And we can lobby our leaders to act to prevent more innocent lives being lost, and to provide aid to those in need.
 
           Those are the ways to show that we are finally starting to get it. We can control ourselves, and if we devote ourselves to serving others, as Jesus called us to do, then collectively, we can start to make the Reign of God a reality.