The Gospel according to Mark (9:30-37)
Jesus and his disciples left from there and began a journey through Galilee,
but he did not wish anyone to know about it.
He was teaching his disciples and telling them,
“The Son of Man is to be handed over to men
and they will kill him,
and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise.”
But they did not understand the saying,
and they were afraid to question him.
They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house,
he began to ask them,
“What were you arguing about on the way?”
But they remained silent.
For they had been discussing among themselves on the way
who was the greatest.
Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them,
“If anyone wishes to be first,
he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.”
Taking a child, he placed it in their midst,
and putting his arms around it, he said to them,
“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.”
Reflection:
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is trying to teach His Apostles some very difficult truths about the kind of Messiah He was. It is clear that they were viewing Him as a political leader, and were (among themselves) “jockeying for position” in the political leadership hierarchy under Jesus. We don’t know for sure how long they had been His followers, but they had not gotten the most fundamental truth about Jesus correct in their minds.
When they arrived in Jesus’ “home base” in Capernaum, He already knew what they had been discussing, and so he shook up their fantasy about Him so they could finally understand His mission and the kind of Savior He would ultimately be, and the example that they were called to follow.
I think the times we get most off-course in our lives as followers of Jesus are those when we are assume our own human reasoning applies to God’s plan in our lives. Or, it is those times that we are certain of how God should answer a prayer, or act in our lives. We forget that we only see a tiny glimpse, a tiny bit, of God’s plan. God alone has the view of it all. That is why Jesus reminded the Apostles that they have to be just like a child to truly receive what God wants.
And what is it about young children, in particular? They have no duplicity, no cunning, they don’t try to make us think one thing, when they are thinking another. What you see is what you get. If we are like that before God, not trying to see the “angle” or to figure out if there’s some kind of “scheme” going on, well, then, we are as open before God as a young child and He can act in our lives! Even better than that, when we have that attitude before God, we can truly participate with Him in His mission in the world. And, what a wonderful opportunity that is! Can we put aside our own faulty view to allow ourselves to walk on the path that God has set before us, which ultimately leads to heaven?
Action for the Day:
Lent begins one week from tomorrow. But, why not take time today and see where you may be “putting God in a box”, in terms of how He acts in your life? What is keeping you from being like a child and experiencing all that He wants for you? Today, ask Him to start that process – that renewal – in you right now. What a great head-start that will be for the coming Lenten season!
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