Tuesday, May 22, 2018 7th Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Jas 4:1-10
Gospel: Mark 9:30-37
Jesus and his disciples made their way through Galilee; but Jesus did not want people to know where he was because he was teaching his disciples. And he told them, “The Son of Man will be delivered into human hands. They will kill him, but three days after he has been killed, he will rise.” The disciples, however, did not understand these words and they were afraid to ask him what he meant.
They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house, Jesus asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they did not answer because they had been arguing about who was the greatest.
Then he sat down, called the Twelve and said to them, “If someone wants to be first, let him be last of all and servant of all.” Then he took a little child, placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it he said to them, “Whoever welcomes a child such as this in my name, welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me, welcomes not me but the One who sent me.”
D@iGITAL EXPERIENCE
D@ily GOSPEL IN THE ASSIMILATED LIFE
EXPERIENCE
Here’s a riddle to brighten up your day: There were 5 lizards on the ceiling; one was such an exhibitionist that it somersaulted only to fall headlong to the floor. How many lizards were left on the ceiling? ANSWER: None, because the other four clapped their hands and fell down too.
This joke is all about being naïve – a trait that we take as innocence in children but naiveté in adults. One child said: “I feel loved by my elder sister because she gave me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy for herself”. This sounds cute in children but ridiculous in adults. It seems that children have all the licenses to stay naive.
But when today’s Gospel invites us to be like children in order to enter the kingdom of God, it is not encouraging us to be naïve. It is the dependency of the child that Jesus would like us to play the sedulous ape on. In our relationship with God, Jesus would like us to be dependent like branches to a vine, like sunflowers that follow every movement of the sun.
To be like little children is to be dependent on God. A play on the word “Christian” is instructive. Removing Christ leaves us with three meaningless letters “ian”. These could very well stand collectively as acronym for “I Am Nothing”. What is nothing? “No-thing” is not even a thing. That is what happens to us, Christians, when severed from Christ. We don’t even exist as a thing. No, we don’t exist at all. “If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned (John 15:6).–(Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
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