REFLECTIONS TODAY

Like in any normal family, adult Jews love to have children around them. Children are the source of joy and laughter, and they embody the hopes of the family for a better future. But children are put in their proper place. They cannot join adults, especially males, in their conversations. Having no legal rights as yet, children are without claim and do not count in the community. 

In almost everything, they depend on adults. In teaching about greatness, Jesus says that if anyone among his disciples wishes to be first, he must be the servant (Greek diakonos) of all. In the New Testament, the term points to absolute dependence, in which the master and the servant stand on the opposite sides, the former having full claim, and the latter having a full commitment. 

Another task of the diakonos is “to wait at table,” that is, to serve. Jesus points to a child as an example of one who is of “little account” in society. He says that one who “serves” the least—the poor, the humble, those without voice—is great in God’s Kingdom. The Master has come not to be served but to serve; he has taken the form of a servant. Hence, serving the “little ones” is likewise serving the Master in return.
 

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 2025,” St. Paul’s, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.