To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Commentary of the Gospell for the day, 28th of august of 2024
There’s something we need to keep in mind when we read the Gospel, and that is that we all have certain lenses, certain filters, through which we read those texts. It’s not easy to get rid of those filters. They are our culture, our language, our way of understanding the world, life, family, etc. We read the texts of the Gospels from that perspective. And that makes us understand some things one way and others another way. It’s not always easy to know exactly what Jesus meant. Among other things, because those who wrote the Gospels also had their filters, their culture, their way of understanding the world. And that surely influenced them when writing down their memories of Jesus.
But there are texts that are different. One of them is today’s. The Jewish society of Jesus’ time, like almost all or all societies that have existed throughout history, was a very hierarchical society. There were those at the top and those at the bottom, those who knew and the ignorant, the rich and the poor, the powerful and those who didn’t matter. In reality, nothing different from today. That’s why we end up seeing those differences in status as something normal and natural.
Precisely because of that, today’s Gospel is even more striking. Because Jesus proposes a radically egalitarian community. There is only one superior, one father, one teacher, one counselor. It is God, the Father of all. From there down, everyone is/we are equal. There are no categories. There is no top or bottom, no middle management. The text ends with an even more surprising phrase: if anyone wants to be first, they have to become the servant of all. It couldn’t be clearer.
I have the impression that we find it difficult to understand/accept this radicalism of Jesus. It’s so hard for us to understand and accept it that throughout the centuries we have ended up affirming and believing that the church, the community of Jesus’ disciples, is an essentially hierarchical society. But the word of Jesus is still there and should be the inspiring center of our lives, as people, as believers, and as a church.