by Fr. Jose “Joesum” Sumampong, Jr.
September 19, 2021
25 th Sunday in ORDINARY TIME (B)
Wisdom 2: 12, 17-20 / Psalm 54: 3-6, 8 /
James 3: 16-4:3 / Mark 9: 30-37
THE POWERFUL WEAKNESS
Word: Predictions of Jesus’ anticipated passion come frequently after Peter’s confession of Jesus as Messiah (cf. Mk 8:27-35, last Sunday’s Gospel). In today’s gospel, Jesus again is talking once again about his death: “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death he will rise (Mk 9:31). This second announcement of the death Jesus would undergo is completely lost on his disciples. The gospel explicitly claims that the disciples did not understand Jesus and were afraid to ask him what he meant.
As Jesus embraces vulnerability and the expectation of pain, his disciples are competing for greatness. As Jesus thinks of his death, of the way in which He is soon to surrender his life, his disciples think only of “getting the better places”. They had been discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest (Mk 9:35).
So anchored in their minds is their false idea of the Messiah and of God—so much are they still waiting for a powerful Messiah with thunderbolts in his hands, and for a temporal Kingdom—that they already discuss about “who shall be the Prime Minister” after the victory.
Rather than rebuke them, Jesus seeks to instruct. He said to them, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all” (Mk 9:35). True honor is not found in lording it over others, but rather by serving. True greatness is not in one’s strength but in one’s weakness he or she conquers.
To illustrate, Jesus chooses a child, a symbol of vulnerability and dependency. A child, who is without status in society, represents Jesus, who in turn represents the Father who sent him. Welcoming the representative is a way of welcoming the one who sent him. “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” (Mk 9:35).
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Order: Violence is growing in hearts, in groups and organizations. Even as this “black tide” is rising, Jesus symbolically proposes to us an ideal—the frailty of a little child.
The child is that “small” human being, hardly of concern in society, whom one can easily get rid of even in legal though criminal ways. The child is the typical “poor”, defenseless, given into the hands of those who are stronger.
But God reverses the social norms of precedence. He declares that, in the eyes of God, the “littlest” is in fact “the greatest”. Jesus places the child “at the very center” of the Christian community.
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Realities: 1. When a Persian rug is being woven, it is mounted on a large frame which is standing upright. On various stools and ladders behind the rug are perched the little boys who help along with the work … The weaver stands in front of the rug and shouts directions to the little boys on the other side. Sometimes one of the boys makes a mistake: he puts the wrong-colored thread in the wrong place. Then here is what happens: most of the time the weaver does not remove the wrong-colored thread. If he is a really great artist, he works the thread into a new design; he improves with it…
Today it is the true mark of a genuine Persian rug that it has at least one such mistake or a bit of asymmetry in its design.
Similarly, the Lord weaves our mistakes into His design… No matter what our mistake, he is on the other side of that rug and design… (Bruno Hagspiel, MISTAKES USED IN THE DESIGN)
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Direction : Let us pray. O Lord Christ, you were pleased so to humble yourself in your incarnate Divinity and most sacred Humanity, as to be born in time and become a little child. Grant that we may acknowledge infinite wisdom in the silence of a child, power in weakness, and majesty in humiliation. Adoring your humiliations on earth, may we contemplate your glories in heaven, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit live and reign forever. (People’s Prayer Book, Prayer To The Infant Jesus, no. 789a)