Danger: Mettle Maker #428 and a Homily (Mark 10:35-45)
Howdy crew,
I’m out camping with my youngest grandson, and I’m writing this little missive from the road. So pardon the lack of fancy links, flowery expositions, and such. I’ll get right to it.
Injuries are a part of martial arts. Do it long enough and you’re gonna get hurt. The other night one of the RVA crew got a dent. Not badly — no blood, no ambulance, nothing like that — a mild hyperextension of an elbow that will likely heal just fine with a few days of RICE. And because we’re all friends, nobody got hot under the collar or anything. Just apologies and regrets.
But.
Just because most martial arts injuries are minor doesn’t mean that they’re aren’t dangerous. And there are things we can do to increase or decrease, instigate or mitigate, the dangers. Dangerous how? Injuries cause people to leave clubs, switch to other martial arts, or quit martial arts altogether. And, under the right circumstances. injuries can result in loss of temper and very dangerous outbursts (I’ve seen it happen, unfortunately).
Chuck Norris got hurt while practicing Judo. That’s why he switched to Tang Soo Do. I stopped doing Shooto when I got my ribs separated. I knew an eye surgeon who quit martial arts because he feared a permanent hand injury that could end his ability to operate. Back in the old days of our club, before we put the current rules in place, we had some…dust-ups, we’ll call them.
Rule #1: Nobody gets hurt.
This is why, here at Heritage Rough ‘n’ Tumble we don’t allow “open sparring” or “drop-in sparring” with people who aren’t regular attendees. We only spar with friends who we’ve gotten to know and trust.
Getting a minor injury from a friend is one thing. You might persevere through that. And you’ll probably be able to maintain your cool about it. But if you get dinked up by a virtual stranger, your temper is more likely to flare, and you’re more likely to go somewhere that feels less like shark infested waters.
So stick to the rules. No sparring until yellow bandana, and no sparring with strangers. That’s my two cents.
And below is my homily on the gospel reading for today, which is Mark 10:34-45.
Take care and God Bless,
Mitch+
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Homily for the Twenty-ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time, 10/20/24 – Father Mitch
Readings: Is 53:10-11, Ps 33:4-5, 18-19, 20, 22, Heb 4:14-16, Mk 10:35-45
Mark 10:35-45 World English Bible
35 James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came near to him, saying, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we will ask.”
36 He said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?”
37 They said to him, “Grant to us that we may sit, one at your right hand and one at your left hand, in your glory.”
38 But Jesus said to them, “You don’t know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”
39 They said to him, “We are able.”
Jesus said to them, “You shall indeed drink the cup that I drink, and you shall be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; 40 but to sit at my right hand and at my left hand is not mine to give, but for whom it has been prepared.”
41 When the ten heard it, they began to be indignant toward James and John.
42 Jesus summoned them and said to them, “You know that they who are recognized as rulers over the nations lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43 But it shall not be so among you, but whoever wants to become great among you shall be your servant. 44 Whoever of you wants to become first among you shall be bondservant of all. 45 For the Son of Man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
The two brothers James and John, called in today’s reading "the sons of Zebedee," were named by Christ the "sons of thunder" in Mark 3:17. Before they were called, they earned a living as fishermen with their father. In today’s reading they ask to be seated at Jesus’ right and left hand but really have no idea what they are asking. As the apostles do time and time again in the gospels, they are clueless about the things Jesus tells them regarding his ultimate destiny – his Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension.
In response to their request, Jesus asks, “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They reply, “We are able” to which Jesus says, “You shall indeed drink the cup that I drink, and you shall be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with.” And truly, as we know, they are able, and they are baptized. James, in dying a martyr, drinks the cup of death, while John, in writing his gospel, is baptized by immersion in the Word of God.
Indeed, the faith was strong in both James and John, and great were the plans God had for them. But Jesus said to them, “to sit at my right hand and at my left hand is not mine to give, but for whom it has been prepared.” As we know by looking at early Christian art, those positions were already spoken for. Traditional icons always picture his mother St. Mary on his right and St. John the Baptist on his left.
St. James is of course James the Great, one of the three saints – Peter, James, and John – who were the pillars of the early church. James and John, with Peter, were the only ones present at many of the key events in the gospels, including the raising of Jairus's daughter, the Transfiguration, and the agony in the garden of Gethsemani. In Acts 12:1, we learn that James was the first of the apostles to be martyred – and the only apostle whose death is specifically mentioned in the New Testament. He was put to death by the order of King Herod at the edge of a sword. The patron saint of Spain, his remains are held in Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, a province of Spain.
St. John, from the early days of the church until the Middle Ages, was thought by the Church Fathers and all believers to be the author of the Gospel of John, the three Epistles of John, and the Book of Revelation – meaning that the John the Evangelist, John of Patmos, John the Elder, and the Beloved Disciple were taken to be one and the same. Nowadays many secular and Christian scholars doubt that one man wrote all these books, the argument being that they are too divergent in style, tone, and theme. Another argument is that the writing in the Gospel of John is too fine, and the theology to complex, to have been written by a lowly fisherman.
The skeptics, it seems, have not considered the many impossible feats achieved by the apostles, men with little education, no assets, and no political or social clout. Laboring for decades, crisscrossing the known world without pay and under constant threat of persecution, they recruited disciples to hand copy bibles in the days before the printing press, collected donations to support the widows and children of the executed and the imprisoned, converted people to the faith, debated pagan scholars, built home churches, settled disputes, handled, administrated, managed, supervised, trained and educated hundreds of thousands of people. Superhuman feats were their bread and butter.
James and John achieved great things because they labored in humble dedication, not working for themselves, but following Jesus’ instruction to lead in a new way. They did not operate as authoritarian commanders but rather as servants and supporters, doing more and achieving more through love and cooperation. Christian minds and hands, driven by powerful faith, are capable great things. Let us go and do likewise!