In My Name!

Tuesday, February 25, 2025

Sir 2:1-11; Mk 9:30-37

Today’s Gospel corrects the misunderstanding regarding discipleship. 

A similar correction takes place with the first passion prediction in Mark 8:31-38, where Jesus insists on his suffering against Peter’s rejection of his prediction. 

Through three insights, today’s Gospel clears the misunderstanding of discipleship.

1.By foretelling his passion and death, Jesus shows that discipleship is a path of suffering. Even when his disciples are wrongly motivated, Jesus insists on suffering as the best means to prove our love. The one who died on the cross invites us to imitate his example of the supreme sacrifice. 

2. Today, the idea of servant leadership has revolutionized the field of management studies. For Jesus, the ideal of leadership is service. Hence, for Christians, leadership is only an extended understanding of servanthood. We can recall that one of the titles used by the Pope is ‘Servant of the Servants of God.’ 

3. Jesus shows a child as his emissary. Who were the children in Jesus’s time? They were the ones without a legal status in the patriarchal society. Hence, only the fathers had significant control over their children. By inviting us to find himself in the ‘least’ of society like children, Jesus mandates radical humility as central to our discipleship.

Let us pray that we may possess the right understanding of discipleship to imitate Jesus better. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar