Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Mark 9:30-37
Dear Friends, Our Catholic Faith is often described as a service from the cradle to the grave. Actually, we are very emphatic that it starts before the cradle at the moment of conception. I think we all have difficulty with this universal demand of our faith.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is using his second prediction of his passion and death to teach us that there are no “nobodies” in God’s eyes.
In Mark’s Gospel, there is a basic pattern to the three announcements by Jesus of his Passion, Death and Resurrection. First of all, Jesus makes the shocking prediction. Then the disciples are caught in a situation that shows their total failure to understand this lesson of Jesus. This is followed by a teaching by Jesus that is a profound contribution to his gospel message.
Today’s predicament for the Disciples is an argument about who is the most important among them. This leads to today’s instruction by Jesus.
Today’s message is missed if we do not understand that a child in the time of the New Testament was a “nobody”, a person of no social value or recognition. Jesus’ teaching was that whoever welcomes a child welcomes Jesus.
A child was truly a “nobody “for everybody except the family. The child had no rights, recognition or voice in anything. Jesus turns that view upside down in his Gospel message today. He not only puts his arms around the child in a tender embrace of recognition but says, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the one who sent me.” (Mk 9:37)
This teaching of Jesus has shrewd social implications. Such a meaningful and respectful relation with a child would mean putting down your self-importance and identity as an adult. This emptying of self was an invitation into leadership that forsakes dominance and control. It was a call to a humble leadership of service and openness.
On an even deeper level, this teaching of Jesus challenges both the disciples’ notion of the Messiah and of God. Jesus is telling us in his teaching, and even more so in his life, that God is one who comes among us not as one who rules by control and punishment but one whose reign is one of service. We are all a child in the eyes of God. It is God’s goodness not our accomplishments that is the source of our strength, dignity and beauty as human beings.
In this statement and loving embrace of the child, Jesus is showing us that there are no “nobodies” in God’s eyes. We need to see that all humanity in all its incredible different expressions offers an image of God. Therefore, if we wish to be a leader, we need to celebrate this divine manifestation by a presence that makes us a servant of all.
Jesus is showing us the way by his faithful surrender on the way to Jerusalem. He asks us, his followers and disciples, to recognize and respond to God’s presence in all our brothers and sisters whether they are in diapers or in prison, whether in a coma or addiction, whether a Nobel Prize winner or a mother-in-law. All are worthy of our life of service and love.
We all have our own list of “nobodies”. Jesus is asking us to open our eyes to see the wonderful presence of God hidden in our midst by changing our labels of negativity to labels of a precious child of God.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is using his second prediction of his passion and death to teach us that there are no “nobodies” in God’s eyes.
In Mark’s Gospel, there is a basic pattern to the three announcements by Jesus of his Passion, Death and Resurrection. First of all, Jesus makes the shocking prediction. Then the disciples are caught in a situation that shows their total failure to understand this lesson of Jesus. This is followed by a teaching by Jesus that is a profound contribution to his gospel message.
Today’s predicament for the Disciples is an argument about who is the most important among them. This leads to today’s instruction by Jesus.
Today’s message is missed if we do not understand that a child in the time of the New Testament was a “nobody”, a person of no social value or recognition. Jesus’ teaching was that whoever welcomes a child welcomes Jesus.
A child was truly a “nobody “for everybody except the family. The child had no rights, recognition or voice in anything. Jesus turns that view upside down in his Gospel message today. He not only puts his arms around the child in a tender embrace of recognition but says, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the one who sent me.” (Mk 9:37)
This teaching of Jesus has shrewd social implications. Such a meaningful and respectful relation with a child would mean putting down your self-importance and identity as an adult. This emptying of self was an invitation into leadership that forsakes dominance and control. It was a call to a humble leadership of service and openness.
On an even deeper level, this teaching of Jesus challenges both the disciples’ notion of the Messiah and of God. Jesus is telling us in his teaching, and even more so in his life, that God is one who comes among us not as one who rules by control and punishment but one whose reign is one of service. We are all a child in the eyes of God. It is God’s goodness not our accomplishments that is the source of our strength, dignity and beauty as human beings.
In this statement and loving embrace of the child, Jesus is showing us that there are no “nobodies” in God’s eyes. We need to see that all humanity in all its incredible different expressions offers an image of God. Therefore, if we wish to be a leader, we need to celebrate this divine manifestation by a presence that makes us a servant of all.
Jesus is showing us the way by his faithful surrender on the way to Jerusalem. He asks us, his followers and disciples, to recognize and respond to God’s presence in all our brothers and sisters whether they are in diapers or in prison, whether in a coma or addiction, whether a Nobel Prize winner or a mother-in-law. All are worthy of our life of service and love.
We all have our own list of “nobodies”. Jesus is asking us to open our eyes to see the wonderful presence of God hidden in our midst by changing our labels of negativity to labels of a precious child of God.
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