25th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B
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. 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 the 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.”
Humble servants and courageous witnesses of the Gospel
Romeo Ballan, mccj
The Gospel is not a code of laws, but the self-portrait of Jesus, a model for the Christians, an example to the apostles and good news for all who look for God with a sincere heart. In today’s Gospel, Mark shows Jesus as a teacher who repeatedly instructs his disciples about His identity as the Son of man who will be put to death, but who will afterwards rise again (v. 31). A lesson the disciples are not in a position to understand, because they are worried about the first places (v. 34). Jesus puts a stop to their ambitions for power by making himself “last of all and servant of all” (v. 35). He is the last, the child, the one the Father has sent (v. 37).
Wishing to be the first and the greatest is a natural ambition present in everyone’s heart and in every culture, and even in our Christian communities of ancient or recent foundation. Jesus overturns such human way of reasoning. At this point he says so through a statement, but later he will prove it by bending down like a slave and washing his disciples’ feet. He, the “Lord and Master” (Jn 13:14) has chosen the last place. In this way Jesus teaches with authority to every person and all peoples a new style of human, spiritual and social relationships. When dealing with God, the first relationship each person is called to practice is that of son-ship, namely the approach of every creature to a God who is Father and Creator. When dealing with our own kind, instead, we adopt a relationship of fraternity: we are all, equally, the children of the same Father and, therefore, are brothers and sisters. These relationships of both son-ship and fraternity are the kind that gives life, serenity and warmth to people’s heart.
On the other hand, the relationship ‘master-subordinate’ or ‘superior-subject’ is of a later date and a rather poor and sterile one. Unfortunately this type of association is the one that often spoils our human and social relationships, even within the Church. St. James (II reading), indeed, teaches that “jealousy and ambition” are passions that spoil our human relationships and are a source of disorder, wars and fighting… They are absolutely the opposite of the “wisdom that comes down from above”, which is rich of the good fruits of peace, consideration and compassion (v. 17).
Jesus, who did not come to be served but to serve (Mk 10:45) and to be “the servant of all”, does the highly meaningful gesture of taking a child, placing him in the middle, embracing him and inviting the disciples to do likewise (v. 35-37). A gesture that conveys a message and a lifestyle. It is the message of loving attention towards those people who are the most weak, helpless, needy and dependent for everything. The fact that Jesus holds and embraces a child – later on he will caress and bless other children (see Mk 10:13-16) – it tells us that He was an amiable and pleasant fellow. Even though the Gospel never says that Jesus smiled, the style of his relationship with children proves that he was a kind, welcoming and smiling person. Otherwise the children would have never come near him, but rather avoided him. The recommendation of Jesus on behalf of children is a very important topic also in our own time, as we are confronted with so many cases of abuse and negligence towards them. The celebration of the next “World Day for Street Children” (30 September) has the Gospel’s full support.
The virtuous and gentle, but determined, conduct of a sincere person who serves his God and loves his neighbour, often provokes the indignation of the godless who wants to get rid of him (I reading). This is the history of the past and of today about so many missionaries killed because they were uncomfortable witnesses: either because they denounced injustices and abuses of power (John the Baptist, Oscar Romero, 1980…) or caused embarrassment by their quiet service (Bl. Charles de Foucauld, 1916, Annalena Tonelli, 2003…). In his message for World Mission Sunday 2009, the Pope remembers with affection and prayer those who announce the Gospel (missionaries, ordinary faithful and Christian communities) who bear witness to and spread the Gospel in situations of persecution, oppression, imprisonment, discrimination, torture and death. But those who suffer with love and “those who have faith, are never alone”. Because we know that “the Lord upholds my life” (Responsorial Psalm); this is the way that the Kingdom of God grows.
If any one would be first…
Pope Francis
The Gospel of today’s Liturgy (Mk 9:30-37) narrates that, on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus’ disciples were discussing “with one another who was the greatest” (v. 34). So, Jesus directed harsh words toward them that are still valid today: “If any one would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all” (v. 35). If you want to be first, you need to get in line, be last, and serve everyone. Through this shocking phrase, the Lord inaugurates a reversal: he overturns the criteria about what truly matters. The value of a person does not depend any more on the role they have, the work they do, the money they have in the bank. No, no, no, it does not depend on this. Greatness and success in God’s eyes are measured differently: they are measured by service. Not on what someone has, but on what someone gives. Do you want to be first? Serve. This is the way.
Today, the word “service” appears a bit hackneyed, worn out by use. But it has a precise and concrete meaning in the Gospel. To serve is not a courteous expression: it means to act like Jesus, who, summing up his life in a few words, said he had come “not to be served, but to serve” (Mk 10:45). This is what the Lord said. Therefore, if we want to follow Jesus, we must follow the path he himself traced out, the path of service. Our fidelity to the Lord depends on our willingness to serve. And we know this often costs, because “it tastes like a cross”. But, as our care and availability toward others grows, we become freer inside, more like Jesus. The more we serve, the more we are aware of God’s presence. Above all, when we serve those who cannot give anything in return, the poor, embracing their difficulties and needs with tender compassion: and we in turn discover God’s love and embrace there.
After having spoken of the primacy of service, Jesus does something precisely to illustrate this. We have seen that Jesus’ actions are stronger than the words he uses. And what is that action? He takes a child and puts him in the midst of the disciples, at the center, in the most important place (cf. v. 36). In the Gospel, the child does not symbolize innocence so much as littleness. For like children, the little ones depend on others, on adults, they need to receive. Jesus embraces those children and says that those who welcome a little one, a child, welcome him (cf. v. 37). The ones who are to be served above all are: those in need of receiving who cannot give anything in return. To serve those who need to receive and cannot give anything in return. In welcoming those on the margins, the neglected, we welcome Jesus because He is there. And in the little one, in the poor person we serve, we also receive God’s tender embrace.
Dear brothers and sisters, challenged by the Gospel, let us ask ourselves: Am I, who follow Jesus, interested in the one who is neglected? Or am I rather seeking personal gratification, like the disciples that day? Do I understand life in terms of competing to make room for myself at others’ expense, or do I believe that being first means serving? And, concretely: do I dedicate time to a “little one”, to a person who has no means to pay me back? Am I concerned about someone who cannot give me anything in return, or only with my relatives and friends? These are the questions we need to ask ourselves.
May the Virgin Mary, the humble servant of the Lord, help us understand that to serve does not belittle us, but helps us grow. And that there is more joy in giving than in receiving (cf. Acts 20:35).
Angelus 19/9/2021
THE ONE WHO SERVES IS WORTH,
NOT THE ONE WHO SEEKS TO STAND OUT
Fernando Armellini
There are many repetitions in the Gospels but are not random; they always have a reason. The multiplication of the loaves, the dispute among the disciples as to who was the greatest, the Master’s reply to these claims, and the embrace of Jesus to children are episodes that Mark refers to twice. The announcement of the passion is repeated as many as three times, always accompanied by a reprehensible reaction on the part of the disciples, unable to understand a proposal of life that, according to the criteria of the people, is totally senseless.
In the first part of today’s passage, the second of these announcements is introduced: “The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him; but three days after he has been killed, he will rise” (v. 31).
“He is about to be delivered.” By whom?—we ask. The answer seems obvious: by Judas. Instead, we are faced with what theologians call ‘divine passive,’ i.e., a verb in the passive that, in the Bible, is used to attribute to God a determined action. It is the Lord who gives his son, who delivers him into the hands of people.
The lover has no other way to express all his love than to throw himself into the arms of a loved one. This is what God has done: he turned himself into the hands of people, knowing that they would do to him what they wanted.
The answer to this great love is dramatic and is announced by Jesus in the future: they will kill him. Here the crime is not attributed to the high priests and scribes, but to people. If God remained in heaven, he might have been forgotten, or at best, blasphemed, but since he decided to come down to earth and put himself into the hands of men, he consigned himself to death.
The disciples are not able to understand this love of the Lord. Their thoughts are too far removed from those of the sky and are afraid to ask Jesus for clarification (v. 32). It is easy to see the reason of their stupidity. According to Jesus, the fate that awaits the Son of Manis incompatible with the religious beliefs inculcated by the rabbis, is the opposite to their expectations. They cannot accept the idea that God abandons his chosen one into the hands of criminals. They agree with the objection that the wise Eliphaz addressed to Job, “Have you seen a guiltless man perish, or an upright man done away with?” (Job 4:7) and the assertion of the Psalmist: “From my youth to old age, I have yet to see the righteous forsaken” (Ps 37:25).
How to reconcile God’s justice with the defeat or even the death of the Son of Man? No wonder that even after hearing the second time the same announcement, the disciples have not understood it, that is, they are not able to accept the scandal of the passion of the Messiah. The record of the Evangelist is not surprising: “they were afraid to ask him what he meant” (v. 32). They still had in mind his almost resentful reaction when Peter tried to dissuade him from the path of the cross. They realized that when they touched this point, the Master became tough, and uncompromising, would not be contradicted and did not accept suggestions.
The lack of harmony with the mind of Christ inevitably leads to the falling back of the belief of people. In the second part of the passage (vv. 33-35), the evangelist introduces an episode that gives us the confirmation. The disciples did not understand or have deliberately closed eyes and ears, so as not to hear the Master’s words and not set the goal proposed by him to all disciples. They continue to follow him to Jerusalem, but just along the way that leads to the cross, they cultivate dreams opposed to those of Jesus.
Once in Capernaum, the Master asks them, “What were you discussing on the way?” (v. 33). His is not a question but an accusation. He is aware of the heated dispute in which all got involved during the journey.
The disciples are silent, they feel exposed, and ashamed. They realize that they have committed something senseless. They know that, on the subject of seeking the first places, the Master does not agree and always speaks firmly. Questions of hierarchies and precedence was a topic of much debate among the rabbis. At table, in the synagogues, in the street, in the assemblies, the question of the place of honor always came up. They also quibbled on the classes of saints in paradise and claimed that there were seven: to each chosen one his or her rank, more or less elevated, depending on the merits. As the saints in heaven, even the inhabitants of this world were to be cataloged: positions of prestige were assigned to the righteous; the impure people, the poor of the land were marginalized.
There are arguments that Jesus did not directly addressed and these can be discussed and also to have differing opinions, but on the hierarchy, the honorary titles, and classes he intervened repeatedly and explicitly.
Mark carefully reconstructs the scene. While the embarrassed disciples are silent, Jesus‘sits down,’ takes the position of the rabbi who is preparing to teach an important lesson. Then he ‘calls his disciples to him,’ and orders them to come because he sees them separated. He feels them distancing from him. Finally, he pronounces ‘his solemn judgment’ on the true greatness of the man, “If someone wants to be first, let him be last of all and servant of all” (v. 35).
It is the synthesis of his proposal of life and it is so important that the evangelistsresume it six times with different shades. Mark notes that the scene took place ‘in the house’ and this ‘house’ represents the Christian community. Each community must consider addressed to itself the words of the Master. It has to absolutely avoid inventing excuses to justify, inside, the situations of domination and subordination, which are in sharp contrast with the gospel. It must especially guard itself of the temptation to take as a reference point the bows, respects and gifts used in civil society. “But not so with you, Jesus ordered!” (Lk 22:26).
In the Christian community who occupies the first place has to put aside all desire of greatness. The church is not a stepping stone to get to positions of prestige, to emerge, to gain control over others. It is the place where everyone complies with the gifts he has received from God, celebrate their greatness in humble service to others. In God’s eyes, the greatest is the one who most resembles Christ, who is the servant of all (Lk 22:27).
To inculcate the lesson better, Jesus makes a significant gesture, narrated in the third part of the passage (vv. 36-37). He takes a child, places him in the middle, hugs him, and he adds: “Whoever welcomes a child such as this in my name, welcomes me.”
In the following chapter, Mark recalls another episode in which the affection and tenderness of Jesus towards children are highlighted. Some mothers presented their children so that they might touch them. It was believed, in fact, that physical contact with men of God communicated strength, goodness, gentleness and their own spirit. The disciples did not like this too much familiarity and confidence and felt compelled to scold and to ward off the intruders. Upon seeing this, Jesus was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me and don’t stop them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and laid his hands on them and blessed them (Mk10:13-16).
In this episode, the children are presented as models to imitate. Jesus invites us to become like them, to enter into the kingdom of God. In today’s passage instead the children are referred to as symbols of being weak and helpless that needs protection and care.
In Jesus’ time, as now, the children were loved, but no social importance is given to them. They did not matter from a legal standpoint; they were even considered unclean because they transgressed the requirements of the law. If one keeps this fact in mind, the meaning of Jesus’ gesture becomes clear. He wants the community of his disciples to put at the center of its attention and efforts the poorest, those who do not count, the marginalized, the unclean people.
We live in a competitive society. The teacher is pleased with the more diligent and prepared students; the coach glories of the strongest of his athletes, but the mother follows different criteria. She is driven by love and her care are devoted to the weakest of her children.
A disciple of Christ is one who, following the example of the Master, takes the children in his arms. A child is the one who is completely dependent on others, does not produce, consumes only, needs everything. He can also cause trouble, does not think as an adult. It is not easy to embrace one who, at forty, still needs to be assisted like a child, pulls, makes mischief, is rude, impedes the orderly life of others, no commitment. ‘Hugging’ does not mean consenting to all his desires, to satisfy his whims and support his indolence, but to educate him, help him grow, to make him become an adult.
There are, in all our communities, children, impure persons, indeed, there is ‘a child’ in all of us. The hug is a gesture that expresses the joyful acceptance, trust, respect, and willingness to serve one another, so we feel the need to be embraced by the brothers of our community.
The “holy kiss.” (2 Cor 13:12) that we exchange during the celebration of the Eucharist is a sign of this mutual and unconditional acceptance.
If Any One Would Be First …
“Whoever Is Great in Service, Is Great”
Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa
“And he sat down and called the Twelve; and he said to them, ‘If any one would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.'” Does Jesus condemn with these words the desire to excel, to do great things in life, to give the best of oneself, and favors instead laziness, a defeatist spirit and the negligent?
So thought the philosopher Nietzsche, who felt the need to combat Christianity fiercely, guilty in his opinion of having introduced into the world the “cancer” of humility and self-denial. In his work “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” he opposes this evangelical value with the “will to power,” embodied by the superman, the man of “great health,” who wishes to raise, not abase, himself.
It might be that Christians sometimes have misinterpreted Jesus’ thought and have given occasion to this misunderstanding. But this is surely not what the Gospel wishes to tell us. “If any would be first”: therefore, it is possible to want to be first, it is not prohibited, it is not a sin. With these words, not only does Jesus not prohibit the desire to be first, but he encourages it. He just reveals a new and different way to do so: not at the cost of others, but in favor of others. He adds, in fact: “he must be last of all and servant of all.”
But what are the fruits of one or the other way of excelling? The will to power leads to a situation in which one imposes oneself and the rest serve; one is “happy” — if there can be happiness in it — and the rest unhappy; only one is victor, all the rest are vanquished; one dominates, the rest are dominated.
We know with what results the idea of the superman was implemented by Hitler. But it is not just Nazism; almost all the evils of humanity stem from that root. In the Second Reading of this Sunday, James asks himself the anguishing and perennial question: “What causes wars?” In the Gospel, Jesus gives us the answer: the desire for predominance. Predominance of one nation over another, of one race over another, of a party over the others, of one sex over the other, of one religion over another.
In service, instead, all benefit from the greatness of one. Whoever is great in service, is great and makes others great; rather than raising himself above others, he raises others with him. Alessandro Manzoni concludes his poetic evocation of Napoleon’s ventures with the question: “Was it true glory? In posterity the arduous sentence.” This doubt, about whether or not it was truly glory, is not posed for Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Raoul Follereau and all those who daily serve the cause of the poor and those wounded by wars, often risking their own lives.
Only one doubt remains. What to think of antagonism in sports and competition in business? Are these things also condemned by Christ’s words? No, when they are contained within the limits of good sportsmanship and good business, these things are good, they serve to increase the level of physical capability and … to lower prices in trade. Indirectly, they serve the common good. Jesus’ invitation to be the last certainly doesn’t apply to cycling or Formula 1 races!
But precisely, sport serves to clarify the limit of this greatness in relation to service. “In a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize,” says St. Paul (1 Corinthians 9:24). Suffice it to remember what happens at the end of a 100-meter flat race: The winner exults, is surrounded by photographers and carried triumphantly in the air. All the rest go away sad and humiliated. “All run, but only one receives the prize.”
St. Paul extracts, however, from athletic competitions also a positive teaching: “Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable [crown, eternal life, from God].” A green light, therefore, to the new race invented by Christ in which the first is the one who makes himself last of all and serves all.
[Translation by Zenit]
