25th Sunday in Ordinary Time -Year B - Children of God & “I Come With Joy”
In today’s Gospel passage from Mark (Mk. 9:30-37), Jesus teaches us what it means to be truly great. He doesn’t say that we shouldn’t seek greatness, or try to be the best person we can be. Instead, he turns the common understanding of greatness on its head: ‘If anyone wants to be first, he must make himself last of all and servant of all.’ This teaching doesn’t sit easily with us because it’s not the way the world normally works. People do not get ahead by making sure they are last in line. The instruction of Jesus has nothing to do with human wisdom. It makes sense only from the perspective of the Kingdom of God.
In the Gospel, the disciples of Jesus had been arguing about who among them was the greatest. Despite the repeated reminders from Jesus that he was destined to be rejected by the Jewish authorities, and to suffer and die before rising again, they were still thinking of his kingdom as an earthly political realm with themselves holding positions of power and prestige. When Jesus asks them what they had been discussing, they fall silent! Clearly ashamed of themselves, they are unable to speak their minds. Foolish and blind as the disciples of Jesus were, and as we often are, Jesus was patient with them and takes time to instruct them about what greatness means in the context of the kingdom he is inaugurating through his suffering, death and resurrection. It means placing ourselves and our talents at the service of others and of God’s reign of justice, peace and love on earth.
Jesus illustrates his teaching about greatness by calling a small child to himself, placing the child in front of them and then identifying himself with those whom the child represents: ‘Anyone who welcomes one of these little children in my name, welcomes me … (and) the one who sent me.’ For Jesus, children are to be seen, heard, welcomed and imitated. They are the gateway to the kingdom. The values of the kingdom are most clearly manifest in children who are small, vulnerable and trusting. When we welcome them and learn from them, when we enter the world they inhabit, letting go of our desire to be big and important, we become servants and stewards of God’s kingdom. And thus we become great in God’s eyes. Such service is not drudgery or slavery, but liberating and joyful, for it makes us children of the kingdom.
In honor of this Gospel, we present our latest video, “I Come With Joy (A Child of God)”, a hymn by Brian Wren that expresses the joy of being a child of God and the unity of the church in communion. The hymn is a perfect song for school masses and liturgies as children go back to school, and for First Communion Masses.
Video can be watched by clicking here or on the picture below:
