Twenty-Ninth Sunday of the year October 20, 2024

It is part of our Catholic Faith that we are to have a living relationship with the saints.

     Today, we meet the Sons of Zebedee, Saints James and John. Christ had called them to follow Him, and all they could think about was having thrones of glory. They wanted the reward of faithful discipleship, without apparently giving much thought to the cost involved—the cost of suffering, the price of discipleship, the price of the priesthood. The Teacher asks them if they can endure what He will have to endure, and they boldly claim that they can.

     Their request is very human. They were ambitious; they wanted to be with the Lord in glory, without thinking through to the consequences of their desires. It is said that an artist was called upon to paint the portrait of Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell was afflicted with warts on his face. Thinking to please him, the painter omitted the warts in the painting. When Cromwell saw it he said, “Take it away! and paint me warts and all.”

     The evangelist, Mark, presents these two brothers with warts and all.                                          

~ FR. PAUL DOBSON