At a T-ball game, a little boy came up to bat. He swatted the ball off the tee and ran as fast as he could to third base. Not first base, as you would expect, but third!

The coach said, “Wow! You hit the ball a long way!”

“I sure did!”

“Yeah, and you ran to third as fast as you could and surprised everybody!”

“I sure did!”

“Why did you run to third base instead of first?”

“Well, ‘cause that’s where I wanted to go and I could get there a lot faster that way!”

James and John boldly said to Jesus, “We want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”

That’s bold, whatever we ask of you. They wanted a short-cut to the kingdom based not on what they knew, nor on what they earned. They were asking to have the top places based on their personal relationship with Jesus.

Jesus tells them, You do not know what you are asking, can you suffer and rise with me?

Even though they said yes they didn’t know what that meant at the time, but they eventually learned.

John and James represent the you-can-be-anything-you-want-mentality, characteristic of our times. That way of seeing life encourages unbridled ambition, rivalry, and unhealthy competition among people.

When Jesus talks about cost he means that what he is asking has great value, it is worth it, but you have to choose to lay down your life in service, like him.

Lay down your life in different ways: suffering with brain cancer, caring for someone with AIDS,  forgiving an abuser, loving a child not living his or her faith,  being generous in the face of poverty, serving in the military, overcoming a bad habit, defending life, raising your voice against the abuse of power, being respectful of others in your speech.

God created Mary to be the Mother of our Savior. When the time came for her to accomplish her destiny, her mission, God sent an angel to ask her cooperation. She said yes to God’s intended plan for her.

You and I are called through baptism to commit ourselves to Christ to the end of our lives. In doing so, there are no guarantees that you will be kept free from hurt or pain or suffering. Offer it up.

If you place your suffering with that of Jesus your suffering will never be meaningless. How you choose to use it can be an act of love; it can change you and the people around you.

Just remember, there are no short-cuts to heaven.

On Oct. 4, our Holy Father spoke about how “Mary becomes a ‘living house’ for the Lord, a temple where the Most High dwells. ... the Incarnation tells us that we are never alone, that God has come to humanity and that he accompanies us.”

Mary is the Mother of Christ and also our mother and “she opens to us the door to her home, she helps us enter into the will of her Son,” the pope continues. “So it is faith which gives us a home in this world, which brings us together in one family and which makes all of us brothers and sisters. ...

“The Holy House of Loreto ... is not a private house, nor does it belong to a single person ... it is an abode open to everyone ... which lets us stay, or dwell, and which at the same time lets us continue ... and reminds us that we are pilgrims,” on our way home to the dwelling place of God.