25th Sunday in Ordinary Time (“B”)
Q. 703: Being like a child is the model of discipleship? Are you kidding? (Return to INDEX page of "Didja Know?" series)
September 23, 2012
A. 703: In Mark’s entire gospel, the apostles “just don’t get it.” Despite repeated prophecies of his upcoming passion, suffering and death, they seem to think that the entry into Jerusalem will result in the installation of Jesus as king, or something like that. In their mind that means they will probably get positions of importance. Pride is so dangerous! They were so involved in proclaiming their own self-importance that they could not correctly hear the instruction that Jesus was providing.
Jesus uses the presence of a little child to teach them – and us – a needed lesson in humility. He wants his disciples, his true followers, to be identified by their unpretentiousness and lack of status. They are to imitate Jesus in his example of love, service, and availability. As our former deacon director Fr. Pat McCaslin used to say, our posture ought to be this: “if I’ve got it, and you need it, and you want it, you can have it.” All we are and all we have are to be placed at the service of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Our job as Christians, as servants, is to glorify God, not ourselves, by the way we live. The example of Jesus clearly shows that meekness and humility are not meaningless virtues. In fact, even his suffering and death were not meaningless, because his life was offered for others.
But the specific point that Jesus is making in this gospel (Mark 9:30-37) is about welcoming those folks that are considered insignificant. In other words, it is all about the way the disciples – you and me – welcome those we encounter who have no social status and are vulnerable. Furthermore, Jesus stresses that if we receive and welcome that insignificant or vulnerable person in front of us, then we are actually receiving and welcoming Jesus himself!
KNOW YOUR CATECHISM! Love is superior to all the virtues. Jesus commands us to love just as he does. In fact, to love the poor is to love Jesus himself. (CCC 1826, 1825)
Deacon Paul Rooney
Mary Our Queen Parish, Omaha
(Go back to Deacon Paul's HOME PAGE)
