September 19th  2021. Twenty-fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: Mark 9, 30-37

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

 

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading . . .

 

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GOSPEL: 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 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.”

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

 

SUMMARY OF HOMILY

1. We do not want to embrace the kind of life that Jesus is calling us to.

In the first reading from Wisdom, we hear how the godless persecute the just man and put him to the test, to see if he is truly the son of God. This prepares us for the Gospel. Chapter 9 of Mark’s Gospel has the third announcement of Christ’s Passion. Here, Jesus is being very specific. The Son of Man is to be given into the custody of men, when he will be killed before rising on the third day. The disciples do not understand but are afraid to question him. This is the fear we all experience when we do not want to go beyond our customary mode of survival, our own ideas, our own mentality, to a deeper and more authentic form of existence.

 

2. We all make something the centre of our existence. Often, it is comparison to others that becomes our fixation.

Later, Jesus asks them what they were discussing on the road. They were debating which of them was the greatest. This is a microcosm of ecclesial life! For any of us to live, we must have a source of life. If we do not make God the source and centre of our life, if abandonment to the Fatherhood of God is not the wellspring of our existence, then we turn to other things, such as carnal pleasures. Eventually, we begin to seek meaning in being superior in some sense to others, in constant comparisons of myself to the people around me. Thus we live by seeking to assure ourselves that others are lesser than me. How many of our “Christian” projects, for all their appearances of worth, are really directed towards self-promotion and self-gratification. The effort to be the first among the disciples is an effort of this sort.

 

3. It is through love, which involves making ourselves last, that we find fulfilment.

Jesus responds by saying that he who wishes to be first must put himself in last place. He agrees that the desire to be the greatest is itself acceptable. It is right that we should seek as much as possible in life, to want things that really count. Ok! Let’s be the greatest! How? By being the servant of all, just as Christ is the first but makes himself last. Then Jesus takes a child, embraces it, and says that whoever welcomes a child like this, welcomes Christ and the Father who sent him. This is a key message. Our call is to welcome other people, not compete with them. From the time of Adam and Eve, we have sought to be like God. But the key is to be with God, to be with other people, not superior to them or in competition with them. The drive for victory, for self-affirmation, is not the life of the Spirit. In the Our Father, Jesus teaches us that God’s name be held holy before all else. It is not our name that we must seek to promote. True joy does not come in victory but in love. When we love, we cease to be the centre; service becomes the centre. That which gives us the most fulfilment in life is to truly welcome another, putting his needs before my own. We are not talking about a slavish, servile existence, but authentic love. Whenever you welcome someone as you would welcome a child, then you welcome God himself.

 

ALTERNATIVE HOMILY . . . Jesus teaches his disciples the fundamental Paschal mystery: he must be handed over to be killed, but he will rise again after three days. The disciples do not understand, but still do not bother to ask the Lord to explain. We prefer not to enter into the crux of life! We prefer to remain on the surface and live our Christianity in a superficial way. This is highlighted by what happens next: the disciples start to argue about which of them is the greatest! Jesus is telling them about the life that comes through the cross, but they are fixated with the “life” that comes from their own egos! The glory we obtain from being “greater” than others is shallow and limited compared to the glory of the children of God that comes from following Jesus. In response, the Lord places a child in the midst of the disciples and embraces him. This gesture of welcome is the key to the faith. In fact, the word “welcome” is repeated by Jesus four times. We must welcome what the Father is sending us. We must embrace it and value it. The key to the Christian life is not our activities and initiatives but our openness and welcome of the crosses that God sends us.