21 February 2023 – Mark 9:30-37
Today’s Gospel reports the second of three predictions Jesus makes to his disciples about his passion, death and resurrection.
All three times, the pattern is exactly the same:
1. A prediction of what will happen to Jesus;
2. A total lack of understanding on the part of the disciples of what Jesus is saying;
3. A teaching by Jesus for their lack of understanding. “If anyone wants to be first, let him be last of all and servant of all” is the great teaching of today’s Word: it is a strong phrase that is sometimes used as a paradigm and simplification of Christianity, even by those who know little about it or those who are far from it, even as a simple joke or pun. This
message, repeated many times on other occasions in the Gospels (Mk 10:28-31) is a clear synthesis of our faith and reveals to us the identity of Jesus and God. The Lord reveals to the disciples the true and shattering meaning of greatness, the search for which afflicts every man.
The apostles themselves are not immune to the logic of greatness that corresponds to power and dominance over others. We shall see this in the next chapter of Mark’s Gospel, when the apostles ask Jesus to sit at his right and left in the Kingdom (Mk 10:37). Wanting to be “bigger” reveals that in the human heart lurks the shadow and fear of feeling nothing and of not being loved together with the desire to be different, superior to others, more and more deserving of attention. Suspicion, the disbelief of being loved gratuitously are the wound, the stain with which every man must reckon on his path. Egoism and protagonism become, in this view, the criterion of action of those who do not love themselves and do not feel loved.
Christ today overturns the idea of greatness that affirms itself at the expense of others, asking us to accept a truth that is unfamiliar to us, namely that of promoting others at our own expense, by serving them. It is not by serving that one becomes great but only by being great that one can serve without hypocrisy. Only God, who is the Great One par excellence, could strip Himself and hand Himself over to men in the incarnation and in the death of the cross. We men must tear down and belittle each other to exalt ourselves, we must bite and devour each other (Gal 5:15) and this reveals our misery. Jesus’ gesture of tenderness, of God embracing and putting a child in the midst, contrasts with our fantasies of greatness, when we dream of being applauded. The challenge that the Gospel proposes is to compete in littleness, in esteeming one another (Rom 12:10), in considering others superior to oneself (Phil 2:3), in being like children, not in judgement, but in the absence of malice (1Cor 14:20), because without trust, one cannot become an adult, let alone free. In vain would be our only strength for such great love, if the Holy Spirit does not come to our aid.
For good workers…
O Almighty God, the Lord Jesus, who died and rose again for us, first and sublimely showed us the way of service. Grant that we may walk it in love, humble co-workers of your kingdom. We ask this through Christ, servant of humanity, who now sits with you in glory for ever and ever. Amen.
P JOBY KAVUNGAL RCJ