Coffee With God

Reflection: Mark 9:30-37

“The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men.” What a beautiful image of love – God the lover throws himself into the hands of his beloved, even if it would involve rejection, torture and killing. The lover has no other way to express all his love than to throw himself into the arms of a loved one. This is what God has done: he turned himself into the hands of people, knowing fully well that they would do to him what they wanted. The disciples are not able to understand this love of the Lord. How to comprehend the defeat and even the death of the Messiah? They are unable to accept the scandal of the passion of the Messiah. Still, they continue to follow him to Jerusalem, but of course with dreams as opposed to those of Jesus. Centuries later, although with greater understandings of the Mission and the words of Jesus, unfortunately we continue to maintain similar aspirations of the disciples of Jesus and fight with one another for recognition, acceptance and power, positions and prestige. Our Christian vocation calls us to be at the service of others. But we are tempted today by a “service” which is in reality, “self-serving”. Jesus asks us to care for one another out of love. It is a personal invitation: “Whoever would be first among you must be the last, and the servant of all”. This criterion is for personal evaluation and not to judge someone else. Jesus did not say : “If your neighbour wants to be first, let him be the servant!” We have to be careful to avoid judgmental looks. Pope Francis during his apostolic visit to Cuba in September 2015, had said: “This caring for others out of love means, putting the question of our brothers and sisters at the centre. Service always looks to their faces, touches their flesh, senses their closeness and even, in some cases, “suffers” that closeness and tries to help them. Service is never ideological, for we do not serve ideas, we serve people.” Jesus had asked his disciples, “What were you discussing on the way?” (v. 33). The church is not a stepping-stone to get to positions of prestige, to emerge, to gain control over others. It is the place where everyone complies with the gifts he/she has received from God, celebrates their greatness in humble service to others. In God’s eyes, the greatest is the one who most resembles Christ, who is the servant of all (Lk22:27). Do I have resentments, jealousies, conflicts, kept in my heart? What consequences do they bring to my personal life, to my family, to my community?