The Catholic Calendar for Sunday, September 21, 2003
Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Wisdom 2:12,17-20
Psalm 54:3-4,5,6-8
James 3:16--4:3
Mark 9:30-37

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

Even Christ had communication problems! He spoke often of His impending death. We hear it again in the gospel of today. Christ tries to inform His disciples so His death will not be such a shock. He wanted them to understand about His resurrection. After all, this was His main purpose in coming to earth. They were to be the main ones initially at least, to carry on His message. Instead of asking Christ all about it, they became afraid and asked no questions of Him. How alone Christ must have felt. To make matters even worse the disciples were arguing among themselves about rank, who was the greatest. How familiar this sounds in a world that so highly values rank.

Instead of becoming angry, and going off by Himself in a state of frustration, Christ uses the occasion to teach the disciples about their role of service to others. The beautiful scene is depicted when Christ takes a child aside and teaches that whoever receives a child in His name receives Him, and whoever receives Him receives the Father. Christ teaches us that we build our 'spiritual resumes' not by the activities that lead to building our 'earthly resumes', but rather by a life of service to others, especially for those considered the least in the kingdom by our earthly standards.

Holy Mary, who so gently carried the Christ child in your arms, help
us to reach out to those who most need your Son. Amen.

- Joan of Jesus, ocds (jmurphy at utica dot edu)

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posted by joachim at 4:35 AM