Reflections on Scripture | Tuesday of the 7th Week of Ordinary Time

Join Msgr. Don Fischer as he reads and delivers a short reflection on today’s gospel, followed by 3 1/2 minutes of contemplative music and a closing prayer. Msgr. Don hopes that today’s reflection on the gospel will empower you to carry the Word in your heart throughout the day.

Choose either the video or audio below.

Gospel 
Mark 9:30-37

Jesus and his disciples left from there and began a journey through Galilee,
but he did not wish anyone to know about it.
He was teaching his disciples and telling them,
“The Son of Man is to be handed over to men
and they will kill him,
and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise.”
But they did not understand the saying,
and they were afraid to question him.

They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house,
he began to ask them,
“What were you arguing about on the way?”
But they remained silent.
For they had been discussing among themselves on the way
who was the greatest.
Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them,
“If anyone wishes to be first,   
he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.”
Taking a child, he placed it in their midst,   
and putting his arms around it, he said to them,
“Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me;
and whoever receives me,
receives not me but the One who sent me.”

Reflection

Jesus is describing to his disciples that he's going to have to give up his life, give it away in order to save the world. They have no idea what that means. Therefore, they ask no questions. And we see why in what follows, because they, like the rest of us, like culture, creates in us a spirit of competition and wanting to be the best.

Life hasn't changed much since then. And yet, what Jesus wants to say is, Look, you have to let go of understanding how this is all going to work. Look at children. Children can be filled with awe and wonder over a story that promises something. And they never ask exactly how do I do that? Or how does that happen?

We need that childlike trust and faith in images that Christ gives us over and over again of the way the world should be, and we need to ponder them without trying to figure out how they can happen.

Closing Prayer

Father, give us a childlike spirit and enthusiasm and excitement for all that you are teaching us and showing us each day. Help us to be docile to the things that we don't understand fully, and fill us with expectations of promises fulfilled that you have made to us. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Kyle Cross