These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.

Sunday, Week XXIX, Ordinary Time

For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Mk 10:35-45)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102024.cfm
To be somebody, to have some thing, to get some where—are very human desires. As James and John ask for the seats of power at the right and left hand of the Lord, Jesus asks them if they can drink the cup he will drink and be baptized with the baptism he will receive. And glibly they answer, “We can!” But of course, the cup he drinks is the cup of suffering. The baptism he receives is soldiers’ spit. Jesus invites us to embrace the values of the Kingdom, to follow in his footsteps, to serve as he served us all.