26
Sep
Sep
Reflection : Luke 9:46-50
Today’s Gospel speaks of some on-the-job training for the disciples of Jesus. Jesus identifies two attitudes of the mind and heart – jealousy and envy – that are obstacles to true discipleship. The disciples are going through their schooling during their three years with Jesus. “An argument arose among the disciples about which of them was the greatest,” narrates Luke. Perhaps this was Luke’s way of addressing the issue of power-struggle in his own community. Luke explains the meaning of power and greatness in the eyes of Jesus. Normally “power” is understood as the ability to control things or people according to one’s own will. For Jesus, power is the ability and willingness to gift himself entirely to the cause of the Gospel. We understand power as domination, Jesus understands them as surrender, sacrifice, capacity to love … The disciples of Jesus must have been trying to establish their chances of being in important positions when Jesus would establish his Kingdom. They put forth their credentials for the job and there is an argument. The situations have only moved from bad to worse. We live in a world that promotes a relentless fight in which the weak disappear and the strongest and the best prepared ones alone succeed in life. The law that moves our world today is the law of “competitiveness”. The apostles of Jesus experienced it as we read about it in today’s Gospel. They believed that because they are from the group of those close to Jesus, because they were the first ones to follow Jesus, they “deserve” an important place. And It seems logical and normal. But Jesus puts a child in front of them. This image of the child may not be that easy to understand in today’s world. Today, children occupy the most important place in our homes, in our societies. They are the treasure of today’s society. But the Jewish society of the time of Jesus was different. Women and children had no voice in the society. A child represented the weakest in the group. And when Jesus picks up the child and places it in the centre of their discussion, he was advocating a reversal of priorities. In God’s scheme of things, the weakest, the poor, the abandoned and the sinners occupy the centre stage and they are the most important people in God’s Kingdom. Attending to these important people of the Kingdom is the only criterion to find favour with God. To welcome and surrender to the last as a way to be “the first”.