Time Runs Out
May 29: Wednesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time
We are small, insignificant, and finite.
In the face of that fact, some people chose to believe nothing means anything.
But Christians have a different view.
Reading 1
1 Pt 1:18-25
Beloved: Realize that you were ransomed from your futile conduct, handed on by your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold but with the precious Blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished Lamb. He was known before the foundation of the world but revealed in the final time for you, who through him believe in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
Since you have purified yourselves by obedience to the truth for sincere brotherly love, love one another intensely from a pure heart. You have been born anew, not from perishable but from imperishable seed, through the living and abiding word of God, for: "All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of the field; the grass withers, and the flower wilts; but the word of the Lord remains forever." This is the word that has been proclaimed to you.
A few months ago, I wrote about stories that last. Some are popular for a brief period, then forgotten about; some are remembered for the lifetime of a generation. Finally, there are perennial sellers that remain popular forever—Shakespeare, Homer, the Bible.
But “forever” isn’t really forever. If AI terminators don’t kill us, the sun will expand and consume the Earth.
One of the reasons gold has been used for money since time immemorial is that it doesn’t go bad.1 So when St. Peter says gold is “perishable,” he’s talking on a heat-death-of-the-universe timeline.2
He quotes Isaiah3 to remind us how brief our lives are, how brief everything we know is. The only thing that’s truly “forever” is God’s Word, which is where we should place our hope.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20
R. (12a) Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem;
praise your God, O Zion.
For he has strengthened the bars of your gates;
he has blessed your children within you.
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
He has granted peace in your borders;
with the best of wheat he fills you.
He sends forth his command to the earth;
swiftly runs his word!
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
He has proclaimed his word to Jacob,
his statutes and his ordinances to Israel.
He has not done thus for any other nation;
his ordinances he has not made known to them. Alleluia.
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
Israel was the first nation God revealed Himself to, not because they were strong, but because they were weak. He is the one who strengthened their gates and granted them peace. But as with everything relating to God, He had greater, longer-term plans than Israel knew.
Alleluia
Mk 10:45
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The Son of Man came to serve,
and to give his life as a ransom for many.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The Catechism gives us four reasons for why Jesus became human, and two of them are in this sentence—to be a model for us, and to redeem us.4
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."
James and John are thinking ahead, but they aren’t really thinking of the long term. They want the nice reward, but don’t even realize what work it will take to get there. We have to give up everything temporary, even our lives, to enter into the eternal glory.
That’s a lot to ask, which is why Jesus shows us the way. And as He promised, James and John will follow His example, thus being further examples for us. Now it’s up to us to follow them into eternity.
It’s one of the nine characteristics of a medium of exchange.
Not that he would know what that is.
The other two are to show His love and to give us the power to become children of God.