First Reading: Wisdom 2:17-20
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 54:3-4, 5, 6-8
Second Reading: James 3:16--4:3
Gospel: Mark 9:30-37
In the Gospel, Jesus shares a truth that the world today finds hard to swallow: “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.”
We have heard the saying: “Kindness is its own reward”. Well, that’s a good thing, because this world, where “nice guys finish last”, crowds, out with distraction and distortion, such virtues as mercy, humility, gentleness, compassion, or goodness.
The first reading shows us how far back this antagonism between the world and the true believer goes: The wicked say, let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us; he sets himself against our doings, reproaches us for transgressions of the law, and charges us with violations of our training.
Throughout the world, the poor suffer at the hands of the minority who are rich and powerful. When we turn the other cheek, we are likely to get that one slapped as well, perhaps even harder.
The second reading gives an insight into the psychology of the oppressor of the just: Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice… Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from? Is it not from your passions that make war within your members? You covet but you do not possess. You kill and envy but you cannot obtain.
These values, based on selfish ambition and the passions that make war within our members, have become irresistible to our young. Where the gentle values have lost their meaning and attraction, it is difficult for our young to resist the influences of sex or alcohol and other drugs. Where there is a vacuum created by apathy, meaningless violence holds sway.
In the midst of it all, the Gospel whispers a strange and compelling invitation: “Taking a child, he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it, he said to them, ‘Whoever receives on child such as this in my name, receives me.’”
Christ invites the child in us to step forward. Did you ever see a group of adults when a baby or a small child enters the room? All attention is focused on the child and the child’s parent! Because in the child there is promise, and hope, and enthusiasm, and a sense of wonder, to defy all the negativity and cynicism the world can throw at it.
As a Christian community, we are a sign of contradiction to a world full of cynicism and distraction. We offer the same invitation to others that Christ offered. Let the little children come to us, and we will nurture and cherish that child.
The ministry of invitation is at the heart of the life of the Church and most evidenced in the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults, or the RCIA.
The youthfulness of the Church can send out a ringing invitation to a world that is, ultimately confused, alienated, bored and apathetic. But the responsibility is all of ours.
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