Jesus and His
disciples (HINT: that’s Gospel code for US)
go on a journey. That is how our Gospel begins
today: “Jesus and his disciples left from there and began a journey through
Galilee.” On the way Jesus teaches
His disciples, giving them the second prediction of His suffering, Passion and
Resurrection in St. Mark’s Gospel. (Last
week we heard the first prediction of the Passion in St. Mark’s Gospel.)
Once
they get to their destination, Jesus asks the disciples a simple but difficult
question: “What were you arguing about on the way?” I can imagine the scene: the disciples all
standing around, shuffling their feet, hemming and hawing, glancing
guiltily at one another, not saying
anything.
The
Gospel says they were silent because they had been “discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest.” Oh, you got to love the Apostles. Jesus is predicting His Passion and death,
and they are preoccupied with who is the greatest. Talk about clueless! Talk about oblivious! This is an example of exactly what St. James
in our second reading today addresses: “Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist,
there is disorder and every foul practice.”
So knowing what was going on on-the-way Jesus
sits down. He doesn’t sit down because
He was tired from walking, He sits down because in the ancient world that is
the position of the teacher. This is why
the Bishop’s chair, his “cathedra”, kept in the cathedral, is important,
because it represents his teaching authority.
Jesus sits down because He is now going to deliver an important
teaching. He calls the Twelve to Himself
and gives this solemn teaching: “If
anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of
all.”
Greatness,
being first, is about SERVICE. Any
greatness that we humans can achieve is really less than insignificant compared
to the greatness of God. God is NOT
impressed with our human strength, wealth, brilliance or greatness. But, Jesus says, God is impressed with service. Because that is what God does.
So to make the
point Jesus takes a child, places
the child in the midst of the Apostles, places His arms around the child and
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.”
What
does it mean to “receive” a child? Other
translations (NRSV) have “welcome” a
child. What is this welcome or
reception all about?
We
need to understand that a child in that culture had no rights. Children were
literally property. They could be sold
or given away by the father. The child
had no rights. Receiving or welcoming
a child therefore means welcoming the lowliest and most vulnerable. Jesus is teaching us to have a concern - not
for the great and the mighty - but for the lowly. In welcoming those of no account, we welcome
Jesus, and in so doing we welcome God.
And to receive God is to receive the source of all life. It all depends on service. Because service is what God does.
That
is different than our world. In the
ancient Roman world when a child was born the mother would place the newborn at
the feet of the father. The father had
two options. If the child was crippled
or deformed, or he already had too many mouths to feed, or he wanted a boy and
this was a girl, or for any other reason he could turn away and the child would
be left outside to die. This was the Roman
way of dealing with a problem pregnancy.
In some ways we have not come very far.
We just make the decision to receive the child or not before the
birth. We still, like the Romans, must
choose to receive the child. The Latin
word used for this reception of the newborn is “suscipio”
. It means to raise up, to maintain,
to support, to accept, to receive.
And
this is what Jesus does in the Gospel.
He takes the child in his arms.
He welcomes or receives the child.
In Latin the word used for Jesus’ action is sucipio.
This
is what God does. In “Psalm 54” the word
sucipio appears again, in “The Lord upholds my life”, which we just sang as our Responsorial Psalm. God accepts and welcomes and lifts up
us. This is what God does for us. God receives us. God serves us.
So
Jesus is teaching the disciples and us:
if you want to be greatest, if you want to be first, if you want to be
like God, then do what God does: God
welcomes, receives, upholds, suscipio,
the lowly and those of no account. God
serves.
Our
Gospel today begins with a journey. We
too are on a journey like those earliest disciples, only not through Galilee,
but rather the journey of life.
When we come to the end of life,
and reach our destination, I think the Lord Jesus will still be there asking
the same question: “What were you arguing about on the way?” On your journey of life? What pre-occupied you? What were you invested in during your
life?
May
our answer be “SERVICE”.
AMEN.
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