Hey Everyone,
Here is my reflection on today's Gospel - which is Mark 9: 30-37
I won't quote the whole thing but I think the key lines are these:
36 And he took a child, and set him in the midst of them: and when he had taken him in his arms, he said unto them,
37 Whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name, receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me.
The audio on my site is of the whole of Mark 9 here: Daily Bible Verses | Jesus’ Second Announcement Of The Passion | The Way Of Service | Jesus And A Child – Listen To the Bible! | King James Audio Bible | KJV | King James Version
My reflection goes like this:
Jesus has a different way of teaching his disciples from that with which he speaks to the many. As he forms them for their apostolic work, so much of what they learn will come from being close to Jesus, living with him, sharing a way of life. We may think of a whole culture, a whole way of thinking and doing and being, being transmitted through a lived and community relationship, rather than, say, of the sort of education which divides the world up into classes and has a textbook and a teacher for each. Christ is no mere teacher in this sense: he is the Master; he is the Way.
There is a further significance to the secrecy that so often seems to surround Jesus and his disciples, and this at Jesus’ behest. This relates to what Jesus says now, as he announces for the second time his Passion. It is not only inevitable, it is necessary that Jesus be misunderstood. This is what has to happen. Just as Jerusalem rejected and punished the prophets before him, so Jesus himself must die. And then the disciples must be ready to take forward the Way.
For all this, the disciples have much to learn. They are arguing as they go to Capernaum about who will be the greatest, the most important, among them, about who will be in charge. Jesus must teach them that they have not been called to lord it over others, or each other, but to serve, to lower themselves to an attitude of selfless service to all. Jesus will lower himself utterly to save mankind. As he hangs on the cross he will present the most abject figure. He will have given himself away in the service of others, and this will be his triumph.
Jesus calls the child to come to him to try to make this clear to the disciples. This is humility, to serve those who are of no worldly consequence, to see and receive Christ in a little child – or in the poor, in the needy, in the sick – and so to receive the Father. This is love and tenderness, to know that we are in the presence of God, called to his arms as children, and to know that this way of being in relationship is infinitely precious, infinitely good.
And here is a link to one of my YouTube psalms - Psalm 22 - 'My God, My God, Why hast thou forsaken me.'
Here is my reflection on today's Gospel - which is Mark 9: 30-37
I won't quote the whole thing but I think the key lines are these:
36 And he took a child, and set him in the midst of them: and when he had taken him in his arms, he said unto them,
37 Whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name, receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me.
The audio on my site is of the whole of Mark 9 here: Daily Bible Verses | Jesus’ Second Announcement Of The Passion | The Way Of Service | Jesus And A Child – Listen To the Bible! | King James Audio Bible | KJV | King James Version
My reflection goes like this:
Jesus has a different way of teaching his disciples from that with which he speaks to the many. As he forms them for their apostolic work, so much of what they learn will come from being close to Jesus, living with him, sharing a way of life. We may think of a whole culture, a whole way of thinking and doing and being, being transmitted through a lived and community relationship, rather than, say, of the sort of education which divides the world up into classes and has a textbook and a teacher for each. Christ is no mere teacher in this sense: he is the Master; he is the Way.
There is a further significance to the secrecy that so often seems to surround Jesus and his disciples, and this at Jesus’ behest. This relates to what Jesus says now, as he announces for the second time his Passion. It is not only inevitable, it is necessary that Jesus be misunderstood. This is what has to happen. Just as Jerusalem rejected and punished the prophets before him, so Jesus himself must die. And then the disciples must be ready to take forward the Way.
For all this, the disciples have much to learn. They are arguing as they go to Capernaum about who will be the greatest, the most important, among them, about who will be in charge. Jesus must teach them that they have not been called to lord it over others, or each other, but to serve, to lower themselves to an attitude of selfless service to all. Jesus will lower himself utterly to save mankind. As he hangs on the cross he will present the most abject figure. He will have given himself away in the service of others, and this will be his triumph.
Jesus calls the child to come to him to try to make this clear to the disciples. This is humility, to serve those who are of no worldly consequence, to see and receive Christ in a little child – or in the poor, in the needy, in the sick – and so to receive the Father. This is love and tenderness, to know that we are in the presence of God, called to his arms as children, and to know that this way of being in relationship is infinitely precious, infinitely good.
And here is a link to one of my YouTube psalms - Psalm 22 - 'My God, My God, Why hast thou forsaken me.'
