WELCOME, LORD! September 22, 2024

Last week we heard in the Gospel how Our Lord began to prepare His Apostles for the terrible death of the Cross He was to endure. We heard then how Peter spoke up indignantly that this must not happen, and how Our Lord rebuked him most severely because “the way you think is not God’s way, but man’s”.

     Today we hear how Our Lord once again foretold His bitter Passion to the Apostles, “but”, says St. Mark, “they did not understand what He said and were afraid to ask Him.” This is the background to what happened next. Shortly after this prediction the Apostles began to argue which of them was the greatest. This was another sign that, like St. Peter their leader, they had failed to grasp what Our Lord was saying.

     They were all expecting Him to be a glorious King and they, of course, would be His right-hand men, the leaders of the people, respected and looked up to with awe by all. Hence Our Lord’s response was to say to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he must make himself last of all and servant of all.” To show them what He meant even more graphically He took a child and told them, “Anyone who welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes not me but the One who sent me!”.

     Our Lord was especially fond of little children, for their simplicity, trustfulness and innocence. These qualities, He says, are not only precious in children but also in adults. Yet it is rare to find them in those who have grown up and been to some extent corrupted by the world. Still, these are qualities that we ought to strive to develop or recover by grace. Those who do live in a state of childlike trustfulness in God’s providence are especially close to Our Lord. The Apostles, (St. John was an exception because he retained this childlike simplicity and innocence all his life), had to relearn it in adult life, but they did so by God’s grace. We, too, can do the same by prayer and the Sacraments.         ~ FR. PAUL DOBSON