Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
First Reading: WISDOM 2:12, 17-20
Responsorial Psalm: PSALMS 54:3-8
Second Reading: JAMES 3:16–4:3
Gospel: MARK 9:30-37
In the Gospel, Jesus makes the second announcement of His passion and death. There is something heart-breaking in the thought of Jesus going to His passion and death and His disciples arguing about who is the greatest among them.
When Jesus asked His disciples what they were discussing, there was silence. It was a silence of shame. They had no defense. So long as they thought Jesus was not listening, the argument about who is the greatest was worthy but when the argument had to be stated in the presence of Jesus, it was seen in all its unworthiness. Here lies the first lesson of today’s Gospel: if anything, we do, say or discuss, we could ask, can I go on doing this? Can I go on saying it if Jesus is listening? Certainly, there are things we will not say or do if Jesus is watching and listening. Now the truth is there is no “if Jesus is listening or watching.” He is omnipresent and omniscient. He watches all our deeds and listens to every one of our conversations.
Jesus did not condemn His disciples; He knows that they are products of their society and time. We too live in a world that is marked by competition and gory intrigues. The Church is not spared of this. We see fierce competition for the first place everywhere. The lesson Jesus gave to the Apostles is all the more relevant and valid for us today – “if anyone wishes to be first, he must be the last of all and the servant of all.” The point Jesus is making is this, if you seek greatness, you must find it by serving others. True greatness is achieved neither from the cultivation of one’s ego nor from the degradation of others but in humble service.
One question that immediately confronts us is whether Jesus is against ambition? The German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche hated Christianity because according to him, it kept people down and smothered them with morality and self-loathing. He accused Christianity of introducing into the world, the “cancer” of humility and self-denial. His ideal man is the one who is free to express his will to power like a warrior, who wishes to raise and not abase himself. He saw Christianity as the instrument of the weak to pull down and suppress the strong. He hated the ideals of humility, renunciation and selflessness. He misunderstood the point.
Ambition is part of what Jesus came to heal. For the ambition to rule and dominate, Jesus substituted the ambition to serve. For the ambition to have others do things for us, he substituted the ambition to do things for others. By placing a child in the middle, He teaches a very important lesson. During the time of Jesus, there was no particular virtue in being a child. A child is marginalized and at the mercy of others. When you see a child, you see powerlessness and helplessness. A child depends neither on its influence nor its experience. The child represents everyone in the world who is poor, needy, helpless, sick and without any attraction.
Here Jesus is demonstrating the necessity of being concerned for the poor, the powerless and defenseless. Jesus is inviting us to seek out, not those who can do things for us, but for those for whom we can do things. It is easy to cultivate friendship with those who can do things for us and those whose influence can be useful for us. It is even easier to avoid the company of those who inconvenient us with their need for help, people without influence or power. Jesus teaches us that it is when we welcome such people that we become His true followers who receive Him in truth.
Happy Sunday
Rev. Fr. Chidi Onwuka MSSCC