First Reading Wisdom 2:12,17-20
The just one is put to the test.
Responsorial Psalm Psalm 54:3-4,5,6 & 8
A prayer for God’s protection.
Second Reading James 3:16—4:3
James teaches about the wisdom from above.
Gospel Reading
Mark 9:30-37
Jesus teaches his disciples that the greatest are those who serve all.
Background on the Gospel Reading
In today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus again predict his passion, death, and Resurrection to his disciples. The setting here is important. Jesus and his disciples are preparing to journey through Galilee, a Jewish territory in which Jesus has already encountered problems with the Pharisees. Perhaps this is why Mark indicates that Jesus was trying to journey in secret. In predicting his passion, Jesus is acknowledging the danger they will face and is trying to preparing his disciples for it. Yet Mark tells us that the disciples did not understand what Jesus was saying and were afraid to ask what he meant. Such hesitation on the part of the disciples is not characteristic behavior. Peter had no fear about rebuking Jesus in last week’s Gospel. Perhaps this is an indication that the disciples were aware that a new situation was emerging.
Mark paints a vivid picture in today’s Gospel. Having arrived at Capernaum, Jesus and his disciples enter a house. In this private place, Jesus asks his disciples about the argument they had while they were journeying. Again, the disciples are uncharacteristically silent and afraid to answer. They have been found out. Jesus then summons the Twelve, whom Mark identified earlier in his Gospel as those chosen by Jesus to preach and to drive out demons. To this select group of disciples, Jesus teaches that those who would be first in God’s kingdom must be servants of all.
Jesus then calls forward a child and teaches the Twelve that to receive a child in Jesus’ name is to receive both Jesus and the One who sent him. We might easily fail to understand the significance of this action. In first-century Palestine, children were without status or power, possessing no legal rights. In this action, Jesus is teaching his disciples and us that when we serve the least ones among us, we serve Jesus himself. Who are the people without power or status in our society that Jesus is calling us to serve? Do we do so willingly? Jesus teaches that God’s judgment of us will be based on this criterion alone.
July15 - Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Called and Sent
July 8 - Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: To reject and to be rejected
July 1 - Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: God who is close to us
June 24 - Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time : A God who guides me through storms of life
June 17 - Eleventh Sunday of the Ordinary Time: God works in mysterious and surprising ways
June 10 – Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B : Jesus our Brother
June 3 - Solemnity of Corpus Christi: Bread that liberates
May 27 - Feast of the Holy Trinity: Father, Son and the Holy Spirit
May 20 - The Feast of Pentecost: Holy Spirit teaches us, reminds us and lets us speak
May 13 - The Feast of Ascension: We are Pilgrims
May 6 - Sixth Sunday of Easter: Sacrificial Love
April 29 - Fifth Sunday of Easter: God prunes us
April 22 - Fourth Sunday of Easter: to carry each other on our shoulders
April 15 - Third Sunday of Easter: With God everything makes sense
April 8 - Second Sunday of Easter : Peace, Forgiveness and Faith
Apri1 1 - Easter Sunday : Experiencing Easter Everyday
Mach 30 - Good Friday : By His wounds we have we healed.
March 29 - Holy Thursday : “The Day of Love”
March 25 - Palm Sunday / Passion Sunday : Human abandonment of Jesus
March 18 - Fifth Sunday in Lent: Dying to oneself
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