In today’s Gospel Jesus burst the bubble of James and John today when they came up to him asking to be put into the top jobs when Jesus took over running the country as they expected he would! He had just warned them for the third time about the suffering and death he was soon to face and they didn’t get it. He must have felt really isolated at times. It’s a wonder Jesus didn’t just scream out “I don’t know how to get through to you guys.” But with amazing gentleness he told James and John they didn’t understand what they were asking. Could they go through what he would have to go through? With enthusiasm they said they certainly could. He warned them, they would. Then he made it clear to them, as he had previously, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be great. Greatness in God’s eyes is not the same as what the world considers greatness. Greatness from God’s viewpoint is service to others. This is something anyone can do, from a child helping at home to a clerk in the supermarket, to the president of a large corporation.

Being a servant does not mean having people walk all over us. A policeman who
didn’t stop reckless drivers wouldn’t be serving anyone. A parent who let their child
do whatever they want wouldn’t be serving their child. A teacher who would let a
student get by with cheating or not doing their work would be a
poor servant as
well as a poor teacher. Being a servant is not always easy and often not popular.
Jesus knew that. Yet he still came to serve, by healing, by teaching the truth, even
though it created enemies for him. He was ready to sacrifice his life to continue
serving, even when people ignored him or hated him.

I would like to comment briefly on the last words in today’s gospel: that Jesus came
to give his life as “a ransom for many.” Two words are important here: the word
“many” and the word “ransom.

1) I think the word “many” implies there are some
who are not saved because they have chosen a path that leads to eternal
unhappiness rather than to eternal life. This word seems to fly in the face of the so
called new age theology which supposes there will be no hell and everyone, no
matter how they lived, will end up enjoying the blessedness of heaven. If everyone
is going to be saved, why did Christ waste his time trying to point out to us how we
are to live and what we must do in order to enter into eternal life?

2) This word “ransom” is a word that connects with customs that were practiced
many centuries ago. In olden times slaves or captives or prisoners were ransorned,
but it seldom happens today.

I want to end with a modern day story that might
convey the idea of “ransom.” It’s about St. Maximilian Kolbe who understood and
lived the spirit of Jesus, the spirit of service. As maybe you all know, he gave his life
as a ransom for another. Maximilian was a priest and was twice arrested by the
Nazis during the second world war for his religious activities. The second time he
ended up in Auschwitz. A prisoner in the jail there escaped and the commandant
punished the entire prison camp by announcing that ten prisoners would die by
starvation. The commandant walked along the ranks relishing this chance to choose
the ten men for death. As the ten he chose were being marched off to the starvation
bunkers, Maximilian broke rank with the other prisoners, walked up to one of the
ten men who were marching to their death and said, “1 would like to take that man’s
place. He has a wife an children.” The surprised commandant kicked the man out of
line and allowed Maximilian to take his place in the death march. He was starved for
days before got tired of waiting for him to die. So they sent an SS officer to give him
an injection of carbolic acid to kill him.

We celebrate now, in this Holy Mass, the love and the sacrifice of One who gave his
life as a ransom for all of us. One who said: you will not die. I’m taking your place.
Let’s do for others what Jesus did for us and let’s be worthy of the price he paid for
us by walking in newness of life.