Homily for the Week of September 23, 2012

TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, B 2012 First Reading: Wisdom 2:12, 17–20 Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 54:3–4, 5, 6–8 Second Reading: James 3:16 — 4:3 Gospel: Mark 9:30–37 The first thing that strikes me about today’s Gospel is the contrast between Jesus and his disciples. Jesus was trying to prepare them for Good Friday, for dying by being nailed to a cross, but the disciples were preoccupied with which of them was the greatest. They just did not understand what Jesus was telling them. But they were also afraid to question him. Jesus had a lot of big egos in his group. With that attitude they wouldn’t be very good at attracting people to Jesus. It is easy to imagine that as Jesus was talking with them, there were a few children close by. They could very well have been some of the children of these men Jesus was talking with. Jesus motioned to one child to come to him. He put his arm around the child. And then says: WHOEVER RECEIVES ONE CHILD SUCH AS THIS IN MY NAME RECEIVES ME; AND WHOEVER RECEIVES ME, RECEIVES NOT ME BUT THE ONE WHO SENT ME. By doing this Jesus was showing the disciples what kind of attitude he expected of them. Jesus was not asking us to adopt the attitude that we are not worth anything or that we have no importance. Jesus shows himself to be an effective teacher. He uses a visual aide to get a message to his unbelieving friends. Only Jesus would have thought of this. The jealous disciples were nursing their broken egos. Instead of lecturing them about their silliness, he told them to make room in their lives for children. That short sermon of one sentence had more impact than any sermon he could have preached. Children have a way of putting life in perspective. Children teach us humility. Children are not impressed with college degrees or whether or not we finished high school as valedictorian, or how many touchdowns we made; they don't care about how many honors we got; they are not interested in the kind of car we drive, or where we live, or how much money we have in the bank, or even the size of our pay check. What children want to know is whether we are warm, and real and loving. Do we know how to smile with our eyes as well as our mouth? Can they believe in us? Can they depend on us? Will we accept them or reject them, help them or hurt them? A little boy is not concerned about what position his father holds where he works. What concerns him most is whether his father has time to play or to read a book. A little girl may be pleased that her mother is beautiful. But that does not matter unless her mother is also gentle, kind and patient. Of course children are very naive. They have a lot of learning and maturing to do. But often in some areas their feel for life is better than ours. As I mentioned, they are not impressed with our fame or our fortune. For them the key word is LOVE. When we welcome children into our lives they do teach us humility. Without knowing it, they teach us what really matters. Children have a long period of dependence on us. Someone must take care of them for years, or children will not survive. When we welcome children into our lives we are committing ourselves to a helping role. This requires us to forget ourselves and look for the needs of others. I wonder if the disciples of Jesus knew what he was talking about. The disciples wanted to start at the top. But Jesus reverses that order and starts at the bottom with a young child. In the time of Jesus a child was a nobody. Two thousand years ago in a very poor country like Palestine, a child could be more of a burden than a blessing, another mouth to feed when there was never enough food. The infant death rate sometimes reached 30% of live births, and 60% of children were dead by the age of 16. Child abuse was almost a religious ritual in the Old Testament. Abraham came within an inch of killing his beloved son Isaac thinking that God wanted him to do so. Jephthah (Judges 11:29-40) promised that he would sacrifice the first one who would come to meet him when he returned home after winning a battle. Sadly, that person was his young daughter who rushed to meet him, and he kept his promise. So with this history of child abuse ingrained in the Jewish culture it came as a shock that Jesus would place a child in their midst and tell them: WHOEVER RECEIVES A CHILD SUCH AS THIS IN MY NAME, RECEIVES ME. As I was preparing these reflections I was thinking of Jesus and what he has done for me and or all of you. His service to us begins first of all by creating us. He spent his public life doing good for all kinds of people. Because of this he encountered a lot of people who liked him, but also a lot of people who complained about him and rejected him. In fact this viewpoint hasn’t changed that much in the last 2000 years. Each one of you have been with persons who question why you still believe, or still practice your religion. They may often make fun or make undignified remarks about you because of your religious beliefs. Because so many who even mention they are Catholic know about as much about their religion as when they made their First Communion or maybe Confirmation. Their religion may be childish, and not child like. But the message of Jesus today is that we are all called to a higher life, and surprisingly, even those we complain about may be in that higher life. There is a story about a man who died and went to heaven. He was amazed when he got there to find people he never expected to find. He commented to God: I never expected to find some of these people here, and by the way why is everyone so quiet? God said: They did not expect to see you here. Most of us will probably be greatly surprised when we get to heaven and see who is there and who enjoys a higher position. We praise and thank God for all he has done for us. Let us pray that we might learn from his example of generous kindness and service to us.