Homily for Ordinary Time – 25th Sunday Year B 2018
2:12,17-20; James 3:16-4:3; Mark 9:30-37
Introduction
Customer service is a big thing in this country. I know that some of you might complain about having to sit for two hours at the DMV to get a driver's license or having to wait on the phone for an hour to resolve a utility bill issue. In Uganda, where I come from, it might take you months, sometimes, years, to get any service from a company or government; how many Ugandans would give their right arm to get a driver's license in one day! Customer service is so important for American companies that they will often bend over backwards to please their customers, because they know that good customer service is good PR.
Jesus also likes good customer service; for he says: “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” But for Jesus, it is not because service is good PR, but because service is his way and the way of the Christian.
Scripture and Theology
In last Sunday's gospel, after Peter declared to Jesus that he was the Christ, the Lord went on to explain "that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days." This was the first prediction of his passion and resurrection.
And then he went on to draw the consequences of this prediction for his disciples, saying, that those who wanted to become his disciples must deny themselves, take up their crosses and follow him. Both the prediction and its consequences for the disciples must have shocked them. Perhaps they had been expecting great things, when the Lord finally took the throne and restored Israel. But now the Lord had poured cold water on their hopes.
Well, in today's gospel Jesus makes a second prediction of his passion and resurrection, perhaps because they had not understood him the first time. He said again: "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.” Like the first time, the disciples did not understand him and were even afraid to ask him.
And once again, he went on to draw the natural consequences that come from this prediction for his disciples, saying: “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” In other words, if Jesus is going to serve humanity by laying down his life on the cross, is it too much to ask his disciples to imitate his humility and service?
Jesus went on to elaborate his message with a practical example.
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.
Why the image of a child? Why the image of receiving a child?
Jesus often uses the image of a child in the gospels, to represent those without authority or power, those who are humble and innocent. In fact, a few verses after today's passage, next Sunday's gospel, he makes the famous saying: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe [in me] to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea." Unlike our world today where sometimes children rule the roost in the family and at school, at the time of Jesus, children were the lowliest members of the family. And so, they are a good image of the lowly, oppressed, vulnerable.
And so, if his disciples wish to follow him in his fate of the cross and his destiny of the resurrection, they must treat people in the way people would treat a child, with kindness and generosity, in humility and service. The disciples should not be occupied, as they had been on the way, with power and greatness.
Christian Life
In the history of the Church there have been Christians concerned more about being the greatest here on earth. But fortunately, the majority of Christians, in fact, the institution of the Church, has dedicated themselves to service of others, receiving others like children, receiving especially the poor.
In the Early Church for example, one of the things that attracted people to Christianity was that Christians helped the poor, not just their poor, but the poor of everybody. The Romans helped only their poor, if at all. Like the Jews, serving widows and orphans was of particular concern to Christians and has continued to be a primary concern for the last 2000 years.
That is why many institutions of service to the poor were first established by the Church: hospitals and schools, orphanages and homes for the elderly. Even today people generally expect that Churches will feed the hungry and thirsty, clothe the naked and welcome the stranger, care for the sick and care for the prisoner, after all that is what Jesus commanded us to do, to receive these people like a child. At our recent convocation of priests we were told that in the diocese of Tulsa Oklahoma, which is 3% Catholic, 70% of acute healthcare is provided by Catholic hospitals. And in the state of Arkansas, which is only 2% Catholic, 14 Catholic hospitals serve the people. And the enrolment in many or Catholic schools even here is more than half non-Catholic. What better way to receive children in the way that Jesus would?
That is why the sexual abuse of children and vulnerable adults by Church leaders is especially heinous, not simply because it is a crime, but because it goes against this injunction of Jesus, to receive children as he would.
Besides the traditional ways of receiving the little ones of the Lord, our modern world has presented us with new needs, new ways of serving others, serving the little ones. I will mention two of them.
Perhaps one of the most obvious example of the little ones of today are unborn babies. You cannot get more little than that. We Christians rightly carry out the Lord's imperative to receive the little ones, when we support efforts that fight against promoting abortion. For when these babies kick in their mothers' wombs, as I have heard they do, they are telling us, "we are here; don't forget us."
Another group of little ones to receive are refugees, among whom often are to be found many children. These are served by the Church, even in this country, through Catholic Charities and Catholic Relief Services. My home country of Uganda, surrounded by wars in the Congo and South Sudan, is currently receiving about 130,000 refugees a year.
But my first experience with refugees happened when I was seven. My parents were teachers, my dad the deputy-principal, so unlike other families we lived in a nice school house; I even had my own bedroom. Then the principal asked my parents to host a young teacher, with her baby and a five-year old daughter, who were fleeing war in a country bordering Uganda. As you can imagine, I was not happy about losing my bedroom to these strangers and now having to share a room with my sister and brother; nor was I happy about having to share our food with two and half more mouths. But when they moved in they slowly began to grow on me. Particularly, I realized that the arrival of this little girl, called Fiona, who was about the same age as my younger sister now provided me with not one, but two victims to boss around. Unintentionally, my parents taught me firsthand what Jesus meant about receiving others like receiving a child.
Conclusion
This command of Jesus must be lived out, not just by the institution of the Church, but by us individually. We cannot possibly serve everybody, because we don't have the means or the competence. But we must serve those who the Lord puts in our path, those who it is in our power to do so. Who, in my life, are the little ones, the children, those the Lord calls the least of his brothers and sisters?
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