Commentary to the Gospell of the 22nd of September of 2024

Dear brothers and sisters, peace and blesings,

We continue to accompany Jesus, on the road to Jerusalem, with his disciples. The teaching of what is fundamental to be a true follower of the Master continues.

One thing that is clear is the Master’s ability to see what was going on around him. He had an all-encompassing gaze. In this passage from today’s Gospel, we see him looking ahead to his own future. And he does so without making hot air, assimilating what he sees, without excuses and without wanting to escape. He knows that he will be falsely accused, handed over to the authorities, and, in the end, he will die.

What he sees, he transmits to his disciples. And it is difficult for them to understand. They understand that it is something important, but they are afraid to go deeper. They do not dare to ask. It is the worst thing, not to ask, when we do not understand something. They are not ready yet. Their look is very human, it is not yet that of Jesus. They only see that their Master is going to die, perhaps. And they are afraid to ask, because they remember Christ’s hard answer to Peter’s dissuasive attempt (“Get behind me, Satan” (Mk 8:33).

And Jesus’ gaze goes further. He sees that some powerful men are against him, and that his fate is in the hands of those men. He knows that he is going to die, because of them. But he also knows that, ultimately, his destiny is in the hands of his Father, because he feels loved. There he can find rest in the heart of Christ. In that way, it was surely easier to accept destiny, that destiny that led to his death, and a death on a cross.

Persecution – the first reading reminds us – is a necessary event in the life of the righteous; it always shakes people who choose to live according to God. The preacher who does not worry may have relaxed, and may even have adopted the mentality of the irreligious. Jesus was not like that. Jesus goes to the end, and accepts death.

Because that destiny passes through death, yes, but – above all – through resurrection. Dying is the logical conclusion of the Incarnation. He had to share the destiny of every human being, our destiny, to be truly man. But Jesus was true man and true God. That is why he speaks of the resurrection, after three days. To give meaning to death, so that not everything ends here on earth. Because, thanks to Christ’s self-giving, death is not the end of the road. There is life after death. Jesus opened the way for us.

There is also a second part in today’s Gospel. Once again, the gaze of Jesus has a different scope than that of men. He goes to the bottom, to the depths: “to be the servant of all”; “he who welcomes a child welcomes God”. It seems that the Apostles were busy with other things. They were discussing positions, offices, to sit at the right or at the left of the Master. It is not wrong to aspire to the best charisms – as St. Paul says (1 Cor 12:31) – but what is wrong is to seek the first place leaving the others behind, or stepping on or displacing the others, when they are seen only as competitors. Almost as enemies. “Remove you, that I may place myself.”

Jesus asks them, knowing what they were talking about, because he would have heard it. What patience. He was talking about death and resurrection, and his “friends” were dividing their places. It is normal that they did not answer, they must have been very embarrassed. That is why, perhaps, he asks them to come closer – he sees them distant – so that they will not be far from him. When He has gathered them around Him, what Jesus tells them is that there is no need to displace the competitors, because we are all in the same thing, in the cause of the Kingdom, but that “whoever wants to be first, let him be last of all and servant of all.” This is what Jesus himself did all his life. It is what the true disciple must do.

It is that the Church is not a platform to reach positions of power, to excel, to gain dominion over others. It is the place where everyone, according to the gifts received from God, celebrates his own greatness in sincere and docile service to the brethren. In the eyes of God, the greatest is the one who most resembles Christ, who made himself the servant of all.

To make it clearer, so that there can be no doubt, he makes a gesture that attracts attention, placing a child at the center. It is a symbol of the fragile and defenseless being, who needs protection and care. In Jesus’ time, as today, children were loved, but they were not given social importance, they counted for nothing for the law, and were even considered impure because they transgressed the requirements of the Law.

Thanks to Christ, the Apostles realized that in the gaze of children, in their helpless presence, nothing less than God himself is revealed and calls to your conscience. This is why we must welcome and help the little ones. God is especially present in them, because they are open to newness, they are permeable and allow themselves to be helped.

The desire for power lurks in the hearts of many people, even within the Church. Jesus did not need his friends to confess to him that this desire was also in their hearts. These evil desires can be transformed, but in order to do so, one must “be like children”. To know that we are fragile, limited, loved. Identifying with the little ones, as Jesus does, allows us to understand what it means to serve and to be the first, being the servant of all.

May that be what we long for. “You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, to gratify your passions,” says the second reading. May we know how to ask for what is right for us. May we be able to love the last place, as Christ did. May we always want to serve others. If we want to be disciples of Jesus we must not forget this in our concrete life. Maybe there is something you can do for others, at home, in the parish, in the neighborhood, at work. Look for it. Get to it. It is worthwhile. For the love of Christ.

Your brother in faith, Alejandro, C.M.F.