Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Mark 9,30-37

After leaving that place they made their way through Galilee; and he did not want anyone to know, because he was instructing his disciples; he was telling them, 'The Son of man will be delivered into the power of men; they will put him to death; and three days after he has been put to death he will rise again.' But they did not understand what he said and were afraid to ask him. They came to Capernaum, and when he got into the house he asked them, 'What were you arguing about on the road?' They said nothing, because on the road they had been arguing which of them was the greatest. So he sat down, called the Twelve to him and said, 'If anyone wants to be first, he must make himself last of all and servant of all.' He then took a little child whom he set among them and embraced, and he said to them, 'Anyone who welcomes a little child such as this in my name, welcomes me; and anyone who welcomes me, welcomes not me but the one who sent me.'

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Jesus always walks with his disciples. He has the sense of the community. He is never alone, only when he withdraws in prayer. Besides, after calling the disciples individually or two by two, he immediately establishes a community (Mk 3;13-17). An individual Christianity does not exist. Jesus shows us that his life has always been communion. Thus, he helps the disciples to live in his spirt. The Gospel tells us that when they come home and find themselves alone, far from the crowd, Jesus makes them understand how great their distance is from the Gospel. Jesus was in distress more than they were because of the death that awaited him. The disciples were more worried about their own destiny than for that of their Teacher, started discussing who was supposed to be the first among them. Jesus almost goes down to their level and do not despise the desire they have to be first. But he reverses its meaning: in the Christian community, the first is the one who serves. It is the absolute primacy of love that must reign in Christian communities. This command was so important in the conscience of the first communities that in the Gospels this sentence of Jesus is reported five times. After this affirmation, Jesus takes a child, puts it in the midst of all and embraces it. It is undoubtedly a physical centre but is above all a centre of attention. The little ones - understood as children, of course, but also as weak, poor, alone, helpless - must be placed in the centre, in the heart of the community: The Lord makes himself present in them.