Monday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

In the Gospel for today, the disciples of Jesus are once again caught arguing about who among them was the greatest. Concern for status was always a big concern for them, and a source of conflict for them. But we should not be too critical of them for this. After all, we all too often find ourselves involved in the same sort of conflict. It is all too human to be concerned about status in our groups and for us to want to be at the top of the heap. Jesus several times catches the disciples in exactly this sort of dominance-seeking discussion and tries any number of ways to get them to see things differently.

In this particular case, he points to a child and asserts, “Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.” If we look carefully at his words, we see that he is identifying himself (and his Father) with the child, and is trying to help the disciples to see that in lowering themselves to serve a child, they are also serving him (and his Father). This is a constant theme of his, “the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve…” (Mt 20:28). He demonstrates this most clearly at the Last Supper as presented in the Gospel of John, when he washes the feet of his disciples. Jesus is constantly working to help us to change our perspective, and to see that our true greatness lies in our service to one another, and especially to the least among us; and that in serving them, we are serving him.

Reflection by Fr. Aquinas Keusenkothen, OSB