In a Mother’s Day interview, a reporter asked a mother of five, “If you had it to do all over again, would you have children? She replied, “Absolutely, just not the same ones!” Raising children is no easy task but isn’t it is a blessing, a joy to have them around. I love their exuberance, innocence, their honesty, their joy, and excitement, especially when I can get them all excited and then leave them to their mom and dad!
Our Lord welcomed children and embraced them. This was unusual for a Rabbi, a teacher because in the culture of our Lord’s time, children received no special attention. They were to be seen but not heard. Parents did not dote over their children. Jesus didn’t consider children unworthy of his attention. In St. Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples to become like children.
In today’s Gospel from St. Mark, Jesus does not call us to imitate the child, but to receive the child, that is, to welcome, to care for those who were considered unimportant in society. He calls his disciple to loving service of the weaker members of society, the needy and those who have no claim to greatness. In fact, we see that Jesus identifies himself with the child, “Whoever receives one child such as this, in my name receives me.” In welcoming and serving the neediest we welcome and receive Christ.
Today Jesus teaches us the disconcerting lesson that the greatness of his disciples lies in becoming the last of all and the servant of all. It is a paradox, a teaching that reverses all conventional notions of greatness. Our culture says, the great are first, the great possess power and influence, others do their bidding. To be great is to get the front seats.
But Our Lord teaches us that greatness in the Kingdom involves the exact opposite. It is not about prominence or prestige. It is about humble service, an attitude that the world hardly understands.
Jesus models that humility and service in this own life. He put off his heavenly glory to assume our frail humanity --to serve and not to be served.
I often go back to the prayer of Cardinal Angelo Comastri which we might make our own today:
O Jesus, You are the light that illumines for us the face of God. How humble you are, O God! While we desire to be great, you O God become small. While we strive to be first, You O God, come to serve. While we seek honors and privileges, You O God seek to wash our feet. What a difference between you and us, O Lord! O Jesus, meek and humble, take away the pride of our hearts; deflate our arrogance; give us your humility so that coming down from our pedestal, we will meet you in our brothers and sisters.
