From the responsorial psalm: “O God, by your name save me, and by your might defend my cause. O God, hear my prayer; hearken to the words of my mouth. The Lord upholds my life.”
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (Mk 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.
During their journey, the disciples argue about who among them is the greatest. When they arrive at the place where they will stay, Jesus questions them about their argument. “What were you arguing about on the way?” he asks and then teaches them that to be first in his kingdom has nothing to do with power or status but about serving others. Jesus says of a child he places in their midst, “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.” This is the answer to their own questions, which they were afraid to ask Jesus along the way to their destination. To be humble and to serve others is to die to self and to receive in a trusting way Jesus and the One who sent him.
God, help me consider the second reading in light of the Gospel acclamation. James says: “You covet but do not possess. You kill and envy but you cannot obtain.” What the apostles sought to possess—the kind of greatness in your kingdom that they sought—was unobtainable. What they asked to receive, they asked wrongly. Lord, you wish for me to possess what I can have and not what I can obtain through selfish ambition. The Gospel acclamation is an answer to James, just as Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection was an answer to what the apostles were afraid to ask. “God has called us through the Gospel to possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Teach me, Lord, to think less of myself, to receive who you wish me to possess in Christ’s “redemption both in mystery and in the manner of our life.” Jesus, I trust in you!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.