The second prediction of Christ's passion

Our Gospel reading this Sunday is about the second prediction by our Lord Jesus Christ, which you can read in your Bibles on 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. 31 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, he will rise.” 32 But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to question him.

33 They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house, he began to ask them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” 34 But they remained silent. They had been discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest. 35 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.” 36 Taking a child he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it he said to them, 37 “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.”

Just to refresh your memories, the first time our Lord Jesus made His prophesy can be read in Matt. 16: 21-23, right after Simon Peter made his confession that our Lord Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. Let me reprint that passage for you.

“From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribe, and be killed and on the third day be raised. 22 Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” 23 He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

I don’t blame Simon Peter or the Apostles and disciples of our Lord Jesus for who would expect that when you finally found your Teacher or Master and then suddenly he tells you that he would be killed and then raised up? Being only humans, I’m sure it wasn’t difficult for the disciples to understand what the Lord mean about his getting killed, but getting raised on the third day was something totally out of this world! Our Lord Jesus was right, they were thinking as humans think, not as God thinks!

Because his disciples failed to understand our Lord’s first prediction of his passion, death and eventual resurrection, he repeats it once more in today’s gospel. But they only kept silent perhaps because this time, they knew that Jesus was serious about this prediction… that it would really happen. Perhaps in anticipation of things to come, the disciples started arguing amongst themselves as to who was the greatest in God’s kingdom?

I’m sure that the Lord must have overheard his disciples arguing among themselves, which is why he asked them what they were arguing about? As if on cue, Jesus then sat down and called the Twelve Apostles and taught them something that they probably never heard anyone say before, “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.”

I’m sure, the Apostles were bewildered, even confused with this teaching by our Lord because in ancient times, and even today, a child was nothing in society. Sure, you maybe your father’s son, but you had no rights; you are entirely powerless and totally reliant on your parents. So they must have been murmuring within themselves… how could a child be the first when it has no rights and totally dependent on adults? Just reading this passage, you will notice that in referring to the child, the Bible says “it”…Taking a child he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it he said to them.”

But what Jesus is teaching us is the real essence of Christianity, that those who wish to be the first; shall be the last and above all, he will be a servant to all. But do we do this in practice? I doubt it, because all of us still think as humans do… we don’t think like God at all! But supposedly, we are told by Jesus to obey his commands, yet we just don’t follow him. Take a simple traffic congestion especially when the traffic signal light is broken. Why do you think traffic gets snarled? It’s because everyone’s in a hurry, no one cares to show his true Christian self and get that traffic unclogged.

Caritas means charity, means love. If only our motorists practiced this on the road, then we won’t even need traffic lights at all. This is the real problem of our present day Christians; they just don’t show love to their fellowman. Just look at what happens when the mass is over in either Sacred Heart Church or the Redemptorist Church; it’s a chaotic mad house with drivers trying to beat each other to the next opening! And to think, they just came from church! But it’s not too late to practice true Christian love even in our streets or in our parking lots. Why because Jesus wants us to!

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