Whoever receives one child
Published Feb 21, 2023 12:05 am
REFLECTIONS TODAY
Discipleship is essentially diakonia or service down to the lowliest ones: the children. The stance of genuine service comes from treating each one as equal. In the Jewish society where children are considered as having no social status until they reach adulthood, Jesus shows his disciples how to treat each person as a child of God. By his gesture of putting his arms around a little child, Jesus demonstrates the kind of condescending attitude of God to all his “children.” This answers the argument among the disciples: “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?” (Mt 18:1). Even as he predicts his passion, Jesus demands from his disciples the same attitude of “laying down” one’s life as the ultimate form of service. To care for all people as God’s children is to welcome Jesus, and to welcome Jesus makes us truly sons (children) with the Son.
Gospel • Mark 9:30-37
Jesus and his disciples left from there and began a journey through Galilee, but he did not wish anyone to know about it. He was teaching his disciples and telling them, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise.” But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to question him. They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house, he began to ask them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they remained silent. For they had been discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest. Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” Taking a child, he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it, he said to them, “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.”
Source: “365 Days with the Lord 2023,” St. Paul’s, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; Fax 632-895-7328; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.
Discipleship is essentially diakonia or service down to the lowliest ones: the children. The stance of genuine service comes from treating each one as equal. In the Jewish society where children are considered as having no social status until they reach adulthood, Jesus shows his disciples how to treat each person as a child of God. By his gesture of putting his arms around a little child, Jesus demonstrates the kind of condescending attitude of God to all his “children.” This answers the argument among the disciples: “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?” (Mt 18:1). Even as he predicts his passion, Jesus demands from his disciples the same attitude of “laying down” one’s life as the ultimate form of service. To care for all people as God’s children is to welcome Jesus, and to welcome Jesus makes us truly sons (children) with the Son.
Gospel • Mark 9:30-37
Jesus and his disciples left from there and began a journey through Galilee, but he did not wish anyone to know about it. He was teaching his disciples and telling them, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise.” But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to question him. They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house, he began to ask them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they remained silent. For they had been discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest. Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” Taking a child, he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it, he said to them, “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.”
Source: “365 Days with the Lord 2023,” St. Paul’s, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; Fax 632-895-7328; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.