World Mission Sunday

First reading: Is. 53:10–11

The LORD was pleased to crush him in infirmity. If he gives his life as an offering for sin, he shall see his descendants in a long life, and the will of the LORD shall be accomplished through him. Because of his affliction he shall see the light in fullness of days; through his suffering, my servant shall justify many, and their guilt he shall bear.

Second reading: Heb. 4:14–16

Brothers and sisters: Since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin. So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.

Gospel: Mk. 10:35–45

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 cup 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 cup 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.”

In other words

by Fr. Dionisio M. Miranda, SVD (Divine Word Seminary, Tagaytay City)

Super typhoon Karding devastated what would have been a bountiful harvest, and the heartbreaking photo of the farmer stunned by his loss cannot but break the hearts as well of those who saw it as pointless. For as one economist lamented, “Even if PCIC (Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation) had been around for over 40 years, there is still this communication gap with their intended beneficiaries. Maybe, those who run PCIC do not have the sense of mission necessary to get their work done.”

At its inception I was somewhat skeptical about the capacity of ARTA or the Anti-Red Tape Authority. Yet, in its three years of existence, it is reported that “it has received and acted on 11,279 complaints, and referred more than 500 red tape incidents to the Ombudsman in a little more than two years since ARTA’s implementation.” Despite this success, the Ombudsman has surprisingly (???) called for ARTA’s closure because it was allegedly usurping the office’s constitutional role while admitting that the same office had done nothing to achieve its mission in the past 30 years.

These two cases of abject mission failure and mission frustration invite us to a social justice perspective in reading the meaning of Mission Sunday in context, because for Jesus, mission meant nothing less than the establishment of God’s reign of love and truth, of justice and peace, with special emphasis on those who are oppressed by physical evils and moral sinfulness. Only the most obtuse will fail to grasp the unvarnished truth that it is the poorest who suffer most the costs of corruption and government neglect or why the Church cannot but advocate a preferential option for the poor.

Given their apparently higher economic and social status, and having been admitted into Jesus’ inner circle, James and John probably felt entitled to positions of honor in the emerging dispensation. Their expectation was not only erroneous; their request was extremely insensitive, coming right after Jesus had prophesied his suffering. Jesus had thus to clarify, using the cultural metaphors of cup and “baptism”—kaya ba ninyong sisirin ang aking dadanasin? Can you endure the same, fate I will go through? To be fair, these two were supremely confident about Jesus’ mission and unswervingly loyal to the end—James to his beheading, and John to intense persecution and suffering.

Jesus reminded them that the goal was mission rather than glory, that the recompense is not a crown but a cross, and that when everything was said and done it was God’s right to honor whom he wills. When the other disciples reacted, Jesus held one more of his many crisis conferences with his apostles. As on other occasions, Jesus explicitly reverses the cultural norm they had uncritically accepted: leadership will not be based on lording over others but in serving them. And if modeling were needed, his own was “to give his life as a ransom for many.”

The Gospel for this year’s Mission Sunday reminds us of three simple truths. First, Christ’s mission was and remains the same: to call and gather all of us back to God, without exception. Second, no serious Christian can claim exemption from mission, because whatever our station, career, or profession, each of us can contribute to God’s reign of love and truth, of justice and of peace. Third, true mission comes with a price tag, for in our context the cross means accepting the sacrifices demanded of any and every effort to end the torments inflicted by indifference or malevolence on our brothers and sisters in Christ.