If You Welcome a Child Such as This

On the 25^th Sunday of Ordinary Time we continue in the time of year when we are hearing the teachings of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and especially we encounter these readings as a reflection on how we are to act on the faith in Christ that we profess. 

As we have been traveling through Ordinary Time during the past many weeks, we have encountered a number of individuals acting in different ways regarding their faith and loyalty to Jesus.  We have also, within the Solemnity of Brotherly Love, reflected on the parable of the Good Samaritan, which challenges us to put aside any distinctions that might be among us as followers of Jesus and rather focus on how we can serve, first of all God and then one another.

On the 25^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, in the Ninth Chapter of Mark’s Gospel, we hear of the second prediction of the passion and death of our Lord and Savior.  The Gospel reads: “They went on from there and passed through Galilee.  He did not want anyone to know it; for He was teaching His disciples, saying to them, ‘The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill Him, and three days after being killed, He will rise again.’  But they did not understand what He was saying and were afraid to ask Him.” (Mark 9:30-32)

Following this prediction the Gospel continues, “Then they came to Capernaum; and when He was in the house He asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the way?’  But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest.  He sat down, called the twelve and said to them, ‘Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.’  Then He took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in His arms, He said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes one such child in My name welcomes Me, and whoever welcomes Me welcomes not Me but the One Who sent Me.’” (Mark 9:33-37)

It is easy to see that within these two paragraphs from the Gospel of Mark, two very different things are happening.  First as Jesus and His disciples are just beginning their journey to Jerusalem, where He will suffer His passion, where He will die on a cross outside the city gates, Jesus tells and warns the disciples concerning the coming events.  He tells them of His passion, suffering and death that is to come.

Now from a first perspective, I suppose that we can’t be too hard on the disciples for not understanding what was being said.  Since we receive this passage from Scripture knowing the full gospel, knowing the complete story, we hear the predictions of the passion and death of our Lord knowing full well the kind of death He will suffer and die, but also knowing full well that His resurrection from the dead will follow that suffering.  The disciples knew none of this.  In fact, they were probably thinking something quite different regarding our Lord.  They had already seen the miracles and healings that Jesus accomplished.  They had seen Him feed five thousand people with a few loaves of bread.  They confessed Him as the Messiah and were probably convinced that He would be a future military leader that would drive the occupying Roman army out of the land of Israel and establish once again the Jewish nation.  With this in mind we can certainly understand the confusion of the disciples upon hearing the prediction of His passion. 

It is rather the response to this prediction that is somewhat more distressing for us.  The Scripture passage goes on to tell us that immediately after hearing this solemn prediction regarding the Lord’s suffering and death, the disciples turn to arguing about which one of them was the most important, which one was the greatest.  We can almost imagine them thinking that since great things were going to happen in the military conquest, they needed to jockey for position in the future military parade that would follow.

But with a little reflection, even the disciples knew that this was not quite right.  We know that the disciples themselves were embarrassed when they were confronted by Jesus about what they were doing.  When He asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” they all became silent. 

While we might be quick to look down upon them too, for this action, especially after just hearing about how Jesus was going to Jerusalem to suffer and die for them, instead maybe we should look at our own lives and how we are acting.  It is very easy for each of us to fall into selfish ways, where we put ourselves before all others and consider only our own needs, our own desires and our own selfish wants.  We need to ask ourselves, how exactly are we doing in living our own lives of faith.?  Are we trying to unite our lives to Jesus in serving others and sacrificing for them?  Are we putting Jesus first, others second and ourselves last in our daily living?  Are we really putting our faith into action?  Are we really loyal to Jesus?

But rather than shaming the disciples openly, our Lord shows them the way that they should act.  He takes a small child and places it in their midst.  As an aside, a church tradition says that this child was St. Ignatius of Antioch, an early bishop within the Church.  Jesus put His arms around this child with a large hug.  He then tells the disciples, “Whoever welcomes one such child in My name welcomes Me, and whoever welcomes Me welcomes not Me but the One Who sent Me.” (Mark 9:37)

The lesson to be learned here is that in performing this action for a child, the welcoming one expects nothing back in return.  If we just give a little thought to the situation, we certainly find this to be the case.  If we were dealing with adults, things could possibly be a little different.  A good deed done between equals in society might create a situation where there is an obligation on the part of the receiving party and an expectation on the part of the giving party.  One thinks, “I’ve done something nice for you, you should return the favor:” and the other thinks, “That was a nice thing done for me, I should probably return the favor.”  None of this is true with children.  In reality, a child, especially in Jesus’ culture, really can’t ‘return the favor’ in any meaningful way.  The
welcome must just be offered as an expression of hospitality and love in the name of our Lord Jesus and is to be accepted with an open heart with no strings attached.

This is exactly where Jesus is leading us in this example of His love.  It is the love that would ultimately find full expression in His taking up the cross on Calvary and dying for our salvation.  It is a gift that is freely offered and one that is to be accepted with gratitude.  It is also a gift for which there is nothing that we can repay.  It is infinitely more valuable than anything we can offer or return.

The disciples of our Lord are encouraged through this example to begin to be true servants of God and of others, to begin to show true all self-sacrificing love as Jesus did.  It was also a reminder to them, and to us as well, that this servanthood can begin in small ways.  Jesus didn’t confront the arguing of the disciples on the way with statements such as “you need to give all in sacrifice.”  Rather Jesus encouraged them with one small act, one small welcoming of a child.

If we consider this action, we know that this is certainly something that the disciples could accomplish then, and we can accomplish now.  But because we can accomplish this one small act of love and kindness, then we can also allow it to expand.  We can let it be the first of many actions of love and service within our lives.  We can perform one such action each day, then twice a day and so on.  Soon enough we will be people whose lives are transformed by the actions of love and mercy within them.

This is what it means to consider that faith and loyalty are essentially the same thing.  If we consider that faith is only something that resides in our minds or our thoughts, then we can easily say that we are people of faith without having changed anything
concerning our daily living.  But if faith and loyalty go together, we see that it is bound up in our actions and in our daily living.  With each act of love, our faith and loyalty grows.  With each welcome to another we become closer to the Lord Jesus Who welcomed us.  With each act of service to another person, we model the life of Christ for ourselves and for each other.  We grow in love and service by actually doing these things and also by taking as examples those around us who do them as well.

My brothers and sisters, as we reflect on the Gospel of Ordinary Time let us know that the prediction of the passion should lead us to take up our own acts of service for our Lord Jesus Christ, His Church and His people.  Let the welcoming of one child then be the example of the welcome and service that we should extend to all around us, all with whom we share our journey of faith, and all whom we encounter in our lives.