From: Mark 9:30-37
Second Prophecy of the Passion
Being the Servant of All
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Commentary:
30-32. Although moved when He sees the crowds like sheep without a shepherd
(Matthew 9:36), Jesus leaves them, to devote time to careful instruction of the
Apostles. He retires with them to out-of-the-way places, and there He explains
points of His public preaching which they had not understood (Matthew 13:36).
Here, specifically, for a second time, He announces His death and resurrection.
In His relationships with souls Jesus acts in the same way: He calls man to be
with him in the quiet of prayer and there He teaches him about His more intimate
plans and about the more demanding side of the Christian life. Later, like the
Apostles, Christians were to spread this teaching to the ends of the earth.
34-35. Jesus uses this argument going on behind his back to teach His disciples
about how authority should be exercised in His Church — not by lording it over
others, but by serving them. In fulfilling His own mission to found the Church
whose head and supreme lawgiver He is, He came to serve and not to be served
(Matthew 20:28).
Anyone who does not strive to have this attitude of self-forgetful service, not only
lacks one of the main pre-requisites for proper exercise of authority but also runs
the risk of being motivated by ambition or pride. “To be in charge of an apostolic
undertaking demands readiness to suffer everything, from everybody, with infinite
charity” (St. J. Escriva, “The Way”, 951).
36-37. To demonstrate to His Apostles the abnegation and humility needed in
their ministry, He takes a child into His arms and explains the meaning of this
gesture: if we receive for Christ’s sake those who have little importance in the
world’s eyes, it is as if we are embracing Christ Himself and the Father who sent
Him. This little child whom Jesus embraces represents every child in the world,
and everyone who is needy, helpless, poor or sick—people who are not naturally
attractive.
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
First reading |
James 4:1-10 © |
Where do these wars and battles between yourselves first start? Isn’t it precisely in the desires fighting inside your own selves? You want something and you haven’t got it; so you are prepared to kill. You have an ambition that you cannot satisfy; so you fight to get your way by force. Why you don’t have what you want is because you don’t pray for it; when you do pray and don’t get it, it is because you have not prayed properly, you have prayed for something to indulge your own desires.
You are as unfaithful as adulterous wives; don’t you realise that making the world your friend is making God your enemy? Anyone who chooses the world for his friend turns himself into God’s enemy. Surely you don’t think scripture is wrong when it says: the spirit which he sent to live in us wants us for himself alone? But he has been even more generous to us, as scripture says: God opposes the proud but he gives generously to the humble. Give in to God, then; resist the devil, and he will run away from you. The nearer you go to God, the nearer he will come to you. Clean your hands, you sinners, and clear your minds, you waverers. Look at your wretched condition, and weep for it in misery; be miserable instead of laughing, gloomy instead of happy. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up.
Psalm |
Psalm 54:7-11,23 © |
Entrust your cares to the Lord and he will support you.
O that I had wings like a dove
to fly away and be at rest.
So I would escape far away
and take refuge in the desert.
Entrust your cares to the Lord and he will support you.
I would hasten to find a shelter
from the raging wind,
from the destructive storm, O Lord,
and from their plotting tongues.
Entrust your cares to the Lord and he will support you.
For I can see nothing but violence
and strife in the city.
Night and day they patrol
high on the city walls.
Entrust your cares to the Lord and he will support you.
Entrust your cares to the Lord
and he will support you.
He will never allow
the just man to stumble.
Entrust your cares to the Lord and he will support you.
Gospel Acclamation |
Jn14:23 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
If anyone loves me he will keep my word,
and my Father will love him,
and we shall come to him.
Alleluia!
Or |
Ga6:14 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
The only thing I can boast about is the cross of our Lord,
through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.
Alleluia!
Gospel |
Mark 9:30-37 © |
After leaving the mountain Jesus and his disciples made their way through Galilee; and he did not want anyone to know, because he was instructing his disciples; he was telling them, ‘The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men; they will put him to death; and three days after he has been put to death he will rise again.’ But they did not understand what he said and were afraid to ask him.
They came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the road?’ They said nothing because they had been arguing which of them was the greatest. So he sat down, called the Twelve to him and said, ‘If anyone wants to be first, he must make himself last of all and servant of all.’ He then took a little child, set him in front of them, put his arms round him, and said to them, ‘Anyone who welcomes one of these little children in my name, welcomes me; and anyone who welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’