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Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent

62. SERVANTS AND SIGNS (MT 20:20-34)
“He it is whose sufferings are shared by the martyrs with their glorious courage and by all those who believe and are born again at the moment of their regeneration.”
- Pope St Leo the Great

Matthew 20:20-34
Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came with her sons to make a request of him, and bowed low; and he said to her, ‘What is it you want?’ She said to him, ‘Promise that these two sons of mine may sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your kingdom’. ‘You do not know what you are asking’ Jesus answered. ‘Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?’ They replied, ‘We can.’ ‘Very well,’ he said ‘you shall drink my cup, but as for seats at my right hand and my left, these are not mine to grant; they belong to those to whom they have been allotted by my Father.’ When the other ten heard this they were indignant with the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, ‘You know that among the pagans the rulers lord it over them, and their great men make their authority felt. This is not to happen among you. No; anyone who wants to be great among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be first among you must be your slave, just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’
As they left Jericho a large crowd followed him. Now there were two blind men sitting at the side of the road. When they heard that it was Jesus who was passing by, they shouted, ‘Lord! Have pity on us, Son of David.’ And the crowd scolded them and told them to keep quiet, but they only shouted more loudly, ‘Lord! Have pity on us, Son of David.’ Jesus stopped, called them over and said, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, let us have our sight back.’ Jesus felt pity for them and touched their eyes, and immediately their sight returned and they followed him.

CHRIST THE LORD The cure of these two blind men immediately precedes Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem. St Matthew places it here for a reason.
The two blind beggars throw the Pharisees into sharp relief. The beggars hear that the crowd has gathered because Jesus of Nazareth is passing through town. They have heard of him – by this time all of Palestine knew of the wonder-working Rabbi from Galilee. They probably thought they would never have a chance to meet him, and now here he is passing right beside them. Immediately they start yelling. They give him the messianic title “Son of David” and ask for his attention and his favor. They want him to come and heal them. They want it so much that even when the crowds try to browbeat them into silence they keep on shouting, even more loudly. They don’t care what other people think of them – they are not going to let this moment of grace pass them by. Jesus hears their cries; he senses their faith. He comes over to them. He asks them what they want. They in turn ask him to open their eyes, to let them see again. Jesus touches their eyes, heals them, and they follow him rejoicing.
Ever since the beginning of his public ministry, Jesus has been assailed by Pharisees who actually saw his miracles and heard his teaching, unlike these beggars who had only heard about Jesus from others. The Pharisees never acknowledged his claim to be the Messiah, they never admitted they had any need for God’s grace in their lives, and instead of following him, they tried to trip him up again and again. They never sincerely asked Jesus to open their eyes to the truth. As Jesus enters Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit gives us a glimpse of what might have happened if the Holy City’s leaders had shown a touch of humility in the presence of Christ the Lord.

CHRIST THE TEACHER Jesus has just finished explaining for the third time that his messianic mission will achieve fruition only through suffering and humiliation, and two of his closest disciples come up to him, vying for power and honor in his court. How little they have understood! In spite of the frequent predictions of his passion, in spite of repeating that greatness in his Kingdom means becoming small, like a child, Jesus has not been able to convince his disciples that Christian glory is hidden in this world and only bears fruit in the next. But the Lord doesn’t lose patience. He restates his lesson, more clearly and directly this time. His followers, and therefore even more emphatically the leaders of his Church, must redirect their natural ambition for excellence. They have to seek to serve, not to be served; to praise, not to be praised; to sacrifice themselves for others, not use others for their own self-aggrandizement. They must become not only like children, but lower themselves even to becoming slaves. Then, no longer blinded by their worldly ambitions, they will be kings with the King, and their longing for a worthy life will be fulfilled.

CHRIST THE FRIEND James and John send their mother to make a bold request, one they were probably ashamed to make themselves (as evidenced by the umbrage the other disciples take at hearing about it). Jesus sees through their ploy. He addresses his answer to them and not to her. But he answers without taking offense. He is glad that these two disciples want to be close to him and be great in his Kingdom. If he could give them what they ask for, he would. But since he can’t promise them that, he will give them the next best thing: they too will suffer for the Kingdom (thus staying close to him). Here he teaches them the secret to real greatness – serving, giving, forgetting oneself. Is our path any different? Jesus wants us to confide in him, to be honest with him; that’s all he needs in order to make us his everlasting friends.

CHRIST IN MY LIFE I too want to see, Lord. I want to see you. I want to see the truth about myself, about the world, and about the meaning of life. I want to see your will for me and the way to fulfill it. I want to see the needs of those around me and how to meet them. I want to see the beauty of your doctrine and of your heart, so that no other ambition will interfere with my striving to be truly great in your Kingdom…
Excellence – how ardently I long to excel! And yet you, the Lord of all, chose for yourself just the opposite: humility, obscurity, humiliation, suffering. You chose this path to prove to me that the only satisfying excellence is the excellence of love, of self-giving. Teach me to follow in your footsteps, Lord. Be my good shepherd…
Lord, I am reluctant to serve. My natural tendency is to want to be served, especially at home, among those I should serve most. So often I think first of myself. But if you call me to follow in your footsteps, to give my life for others, then it must be possible. You never ask the impossible. Through you, with you, and in you, I can be all that you created me to be. Okay, Lord, whatever you want. Thy will be done…

QUESTIONS FOR SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION
1. What struck you most about this passage? What did you notice that you hadn’t noticed before?
2. Why doesn’t Jesus reprimand John and James for wanting to be great in his Kingdom? Is ambition bad?
3. Why do you think Jesus touched the blind men’s eyes in order to cure them? Why didn’t he just cure them with a word?
4. Why do you think the crowds following Jesus tried to get the beggars to stop crying out? Is there a lesson in that for us as followers of Christ?

Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 786 on the nature of Christ’s (and Christians’) vocation to serve; 615 on the nature of Jesus’ self-offering as a ransom for many; 1503-1505 on Christ’s miracles as a sign of his love