IF ANYONE WISHES TO BE FIRST

Jam 4.1-10; Ps 54; Mk 9,30-37
22 MAY

The kingdom of God is infinitely different than every kingdom of men existing on earth. It is also infinitely different than any other form of exercise of power, including also the form of democracy, under whatever form or manner it is exercised. In the kingdoms and governments of the world, power is either taken away from man or is delegated to him. But man does not govern. He will always be governed. Exactly the opposite happens in the kingdom of God. Here everyone is called to personally exercise his power, the one that God has bestowed on him. In the realms of the world everyone is either stripped or strips himself of power. In the kingdom of God, God and Christ are the ones who are stripped of their power to give it to every believer in Christ Jesus and also to every other man.

In the kingdom of God every power exercised is of love, truth, light, justice, mercy and compassion. This power which is of true creation of the good in the heart of man is exercised from below and not from above, from the last place and not from the first. It is a power that obliges us to take upon ourselves all the sin of the world to expiate it with our life, washing it if necessary with our own blood. What St. Paul says of Christ and his Church, it is not only valid for marriage, but also for every other service given in his body and by his body. One serves by pouring his own blood to free the world from all evil. He gives his life to save a life. In this Paul is a teacher.

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church, of which I am a minister in accordance with God’s stewardship given to me to bring to completion for you the word of God, the mystery hidden from ages and from generations past. But now it has been manifested to his holy ones, to whom God chose to make known the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; it is Christ in you, the hope for glory. It is he whom we proclaim, admonishing everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. For this I labour and struggle, in accord with the exercise of his power working within me (Col 1,24-29).

Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is head of his wife just as Christ is head of the church, he himself the saviour of the body. As the church is subordinate to Christ, so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. So (also) husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “For this reason a man shall leave (his) father and (his) mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church. In any case, each one of you should love his wife as himself, and the wife should respect her husband (Eph 5,21-33).

The disciples quarrel because they think of the kingdom of God in all similar to the kingdoms and forms of government of this world. Yesterday’s dispute ends only when one thinks with Christ’s thoughts and uses his heart. The more we become one heart with Christ and one mind with the Holy Spirit and the fewer fights there will be among the disciples of Jesus.

They 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 he 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. 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.”

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us the heart of Christ today.