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Dear Parish Faithful,
[Sunday’s] gospel (Mark 10.32–45) describes Jesus’ ascent to Jerusalem before his Passion. Jesus takes the twelve apostles aside and starts to tell them that he will be betrayed, condemned, and put to death, and that he will rise again from the dead. At the threshold of Holy Week could we be “taken aside” by the Savior for a talk in which he explains to us, personally, the mystery of Redemption? Do we ask the Master to help us understand at greater depth what is taking place for our sakes on Golgotha? Do we make it possible for Jesus to meet us in secret? Do we seize opportunities to be alone and quiet with the Lord? Then the sons of Zebedee come to Jesus and ask him to let them sit with him in his glory, one on his right and the other on his left. Jesus asks them—and puts the same questions to us: “Can ye drink of the cup that I drink of?” The Master then explains to the disciples that true glory lies in serving others. For “the Son of man came not to be ministered unto but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
—A Monk of the Eastern Church, The Year of Grace of the Lord
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This is actually Fr. Lev Gillet (+1980). He once wrote: "What attracts me is a vocation of loss - a life which gives itself freely without any apparent positive result, for the results would be known to God alone; in brief, to lose oneself in order to find oneself." With an all-encompassing simplicity, he once wrote: "The Gospel is all that matters." Perhaps we can sense the truth behind those words most fully in the upcoming Holy Week.
