25th Sunday of Year B, 19th September, 2021

May we through this Eucharistic celebration of this Sunday realise that the greatness lies in the service of our needy neighbour and may God grant us the disposition to always care for our neighbours that

 

DOCTRINE AND FAITH
(Wisdom 2,12.17-20; James 3,16-4.3; Mark 9,30-37: 25th Sunday of Year B, 19th September, 2021)

On this Sunday the liturgy recalls the Passion of Jesus twice. In the first reading, taken from the book of Wisdom, the hostility of the wicked against the just is reported in a very impressive way. In the Gospel, Jesus announces his passion. The Gospel shows us that the disciples do not understand this message from Jesus and do not behave consistently with it. This is a lesson for us who must be consistent with our faith in the crucified and risen Jesus.
The evangelist tells us that Jesus and his disciples were going through Galilee, but he did not want anyone to know, and he instructed his disciples saying: The Son of man is about to be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill him; but he will resurrect after three days. Immediately afterwards, Mark says that the disciples did not understand these words and were afraid to ask for explanations. Jesus' announcement is clear: it is about his passion and his resurrection. But the disciples have other perspectives; that's why his words don't enter their minds. For them the Messiah must be victorious, he must triumph; therefore, he cannot be delivered into the hands of enemies, he cannot be killed. Another difficulty was that the term resurrect was not very clear at that time. We have now a specific word to indicate resurrection from the dead. In the time of Jesus, the terms used were rather vague: there were expressions like getting up, and waking up. These terms could be misunderstood. But the clearest and main hinderance is that the disciples do not accept this announcement at all because immediately afterwards, they discussed who is the greatest among them. While Jesus announced his humiliation - that of being delivered into the hands of men as a culprit, and the even greater humiliation of being crucified, after being condemned - the disciples preoccupy themselves with the aspiration for greatness, they argue over which of them should have the first place. All this is inconsistent: they follow a teacher who does not seek places of honor but wants to serve to the point of giving his life as a ransom for many, yet they aspire to occupy great positions. We too are often not consistent with our faith and live according to human criteria of seeking ambition, greatness and honor. Jesus then gives his disciples and us this teaching: If anyone wants to be first, he must be the last of all and the servant of all (cf. Matt 20,27). This is the gospel principle: greatness consists in serving.  Spontaneously, we do not think so. Our human perspective is that of thinking that whoever serves is at the bottom, is not the first, but the last, while whoever is served is at the highest place in society, and therefore is honored and considered as the first. Instead, Jesus shows us that true greatness consists in serving. In this perspective, those who are not needed are not great, they cannot be the first. To be the first, you have to put yourself in the last place, to serve everyone else. This teaching of Jesus is strong, demanding, but it is also so necessary and so beautiful. Jesus asks us to know how to appreciate service and not honors. A humble servant is greater than a rich man who serves no one and allows himself to be served by others. In society, it is the contrary mentality that continually prevails; but we must know how to reject it and evaluate all things according to this Gospel principle: If anyone wants to be first, he must be the last of all and the servant of all. To inculcate this teaching even better, Jesus takes a child, places him in the middle, embraces him and says to the disciples: Whoever welcomes one of these children in my name welcomes me; whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me. Thus, it makes us understand that service consists in welcoming people and, above all, the humble which include children. Jesus shows immense respect for children, so much so that he identifies with them: Whoever welcomes one of these children in my name welcomes me. All the Church's commitment to the education of children is based on these words of Jesus. She intends to welcome the Lord by welcoming children, placing herself at the service of their life and formation. Jesus then adds: Whoever welcomes me welcomes not me, but the one who sent me. It is not possible to welcome a person more important than the Father. Here Jesus uses the term welcoming, again opposing the mentality of the world. Trying to welcome God does not mean going towards heights and honors, but going downwards and towards humility and undertaking humble services.

The first reading shows us how the human mentality can easily become perverse: instead of welcoming the just and the Lord, it shows itself hostile to the just and tries to suppress them. It is a strange thing, but very real, that those who are bad also take pretexts from the qualities of the righteous to persecute them and to harm them. Let us lie in wait for the just one- says the wicked, because he annoys us and opposes our way of life, he reproaches us for the transgressions of the law and accuses us of the shortcomings against the education received. [... ] Let's put him to the test with insults and torments, to know the meekness of his character and test his resignation. Let us condemn him to an infamous death, because, according to his words, help will come to him. The passion of Jesus was provoked by the wickedness of men. Jesus who did good, who showed himself to be so generous and merciful to everyone, is precisely for this reason criticized, persecuted, accused and condemned. We must ask God for the grace to be freed from this bad mentality, through union with the meek and humble heart of Jesus.
In the second reading, the apostle James exhorts us to have an attitude similar to that of the merciful heart of Jesus. He tells us that we must not be jealous and contentious, which often provoke all sorts of bad actions, but rather, we must behave virtuously in an atmosphere of  peace, meekness, prudence, mercy and  fruitfulness, without partiality, and hypocrisy. Our Christian ideal is that of meekness and humility of heart like Jesus’. We must realize this ideal in our concrete life, in our relationships with the people we come into contact with every day. James strongly criticizes Christians who are not faithful to this ideal. From his words we can understand that in the primitive community some were Christians only in name, but not in fact, and therefore allowed themselves to be guided by their passions. James asks Christians: From what do the wars and quarrels that are among you come from? In the Christian community there were wars and quarrels, and this constituted a scandal. James thus explains the fact: [These wars and these quarrels] do they not come from your selfish and ambition-driven fight among yourselves? Therefore, it is necessary to be truly faithful to the spirit of Christ. Then James exhorts us to pray in the right way, saying: You ask, and you do not get, because you ask badly, to spend on your pleasures. We must not ask for anything to be spent on pleasures, but ask for good, that is, first of all to ask for the grace to make progress in the Christian life, in faith, in hope and in charity. Let us follow Jesus who with his passion has conquered evil and with his spirit of service has overcome selfishness. We must truly follow him, not letting ourselves be deceived by spontaneous human tendencies, which push us in the opposite direction.
Let us ask the Lord for the grace to understand the teaching that he wants to give us today and to be docile to the impulse that comes to us from the Holy Spirit, to always make us more like Jesus who is meek and humble of heart. +John I. Okoye