XXV Sunday in Ordinary Time  B  (22 September 2024)

1. Every page of the gospel, indeed every word of Jesus produces different resonances in the listener because it is not like reading or listening to a piece of news closed in time, but receiving a personalised message that is always new: in short, through the gospel, Jesus speaks in the concrete context in which you find yourself according to the openness and expectation of your heart. Try therefore to ask yourself what the Gospel says to you today (Mk 9:30-37). We have already heard the Apostle Peter being scandalised by the announcement of his Master's death on the cross and receiving a harsh rebuke right after his profession of faith. Peter,' Jesus intimated with authority, 'turn back "Satan", take your place and let me clear up the ideas that do not correspond to God's plans.  Today the same thing happens with all the disciples who on the road to Capernaum argue among themselves about who will be the most important when the Messiah establishes his kingdom. Of course they are a long way from reality if Jesus has to repeat what he had said before. And indeed the evangelist specifies that "he taught his disciples and said to them: the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him; but once he is killed, he will rise again after three days". It is worth dwelling on the expression "The Son of Man delivered into the hands of men". The mystery of a God the Son of Man who delivers himself into the hands of man is the heart of all revelation. But where does the expression 'Son of Man' originate? In truth, it is a title with different shades of meaning in the Old and New Testaments. The expression 'Son of Man' appears in the Old Testament, mainly in the book of the prophet Ezekiel and the book of Daniel. In Ezekiel, God addresses the prophet by calling him 'son of man' more than 90 times and the term seems to simply refer to a human being whose frailty and mortality it highlights.  In the book of the prophet Daniel, however, we find the key passage for the messianic meaning of the expression 'Son of Man'. In a vision, the prophet sees "coming with the clouds of heaven one resembling a son of man; he came as far as the Watchman and was presented to him. He was given power, glory, and kingdom; all peoples, nations, and languages served him; his power is an everlasting power, which never fades, and his kingdom is such that it will never be destroyed" (7:13-14). Here, the 'Son of Man' is not just a human being, but a heavenly figure on whom eternal and universal dominion is conferred. Here is the Messiah, the one sent by God to establish his kingdom, advancing on clouds of glory: a description that recalls divinity and final judgement. In the gospels Jesus uses the expression 'Son of Man' attributing it to himself more than 80 times and this title has at least three main meanings. By calling himself the 'Son of Man', he identifies himself as a real human being and is to say that, although the Messiah is the Son of God, he is man and shares our human condition. When he then refers to the prophet Daniel's vision, he wants to indicate his messianic role. For example, the "Son of Man" who comes "with the clouds of heaven" (Mt 24:30), is identified with the glorious and divine figure of Daniel and this title emphasises his definitive appearance as judge and universal ruler. But Christ also uses the term 'Son of Man' to speak of his passion and death, predicting that he will be handed over to men and be killed, but on the third day he will rise again. Thus the connection between the Son of Man and suffering (which was not present in Daniel) is a unique aspect of the way Jesus interprets his mission. Ultimately, the expression "Son of Man" Jesus attributes it to himself, combining the idea of his humanity with his role as the glorious Messiah and his redemptive mission through suffering and passion. In the moments of the passion, the verb "deliver" = to betray is striking: Judas delivers him to the leaders and soldiers (Mk 14:10, 44), the leaders to Pilate (Mk 15:1) and Pilate to the crucifiers (Mk 15:15), but the heart of it all, which constitutes the paradox, is that God himself delivers him and Jesus in turn delivers himself to us. In this handing himself over/giving himself to all, even to those who reject, deny and betray him, the revelation of God as love is shown to be total, unconditional, definitive and forever.

2. Let us return to today's Gospel text where the disciples "did not understand and were afraid to question him". Three of them, Peter James and John, had seen him transfigured, as the evangelist narrates just before at the beginning of this very chapter, and they were already dreaming of entering into glory with the Messiah blazing with light. The other apostles, to the account that the three make of their experience on Tabor, react by competing over "who was the greatest" to occupy the first place in the kingdom that the Messiah is about to establish. Jesus disconcerts them: "If anyone wants to be first, let him be last of all and servant of all" and taking a child he adds: "whoever receives one of these children in my name receives me; and whoever receives me does not receive me, but he who sent me". Just imagine the confusion in the disciples' heads as they fail to reconcile the glory of the messianic triumph with the scandal of the cross, and for the three disciples who witnessed Jesus' transfiguration, this seems even more unacceptable and unlikely.  The splendour of the transfiguration remains in them, their ears have heard that Jesus is the beloved Son, the one who must be heard, how can they admit what he now announces: betrayal and hatred of men, suffering and death on the cross, and this in a certain and ineluctable manner? In the thinking of the apostles as well as their contemporaries, and probably also in us, glory and cross are not a happy pair. There is also a further contradiction: first he says that he will be killed and treated as refuse by men, then that resurrected he will triumph: so not only are glory and the cross inseparable, but to reach glory one must pass through the cross. An unknown 17th century monk and theologian writes: 'Sic decet per crucem ad gloriam, per angusta ad augusta penetrare, et per aspera ad astra' (J. Heidfeld [†1624]).

3. As if this were not enough, Jesus confuses the apostles even more because, first he states that 'if anyone wants to be first, let him be last of all and servant of all', then, taking a child in his arms (only here in Mark's gospel does he make this gesture), he shows as a model to imitate precisely the child, a vulnerable and defenceless human being in need of care. At that moment, the disciples do not die from the desire to be last, and even Jesus' gesture of pointing to the child as a model to be considered puts them in turmoil because they are in the midst of the power rivalry problem of which St James speaks in today's second reading (Jas 3:16-4:3).  In short, it is The World Upside Down: no wonder the disciples struggle to understand this because it also puts us in crisis. Jesus, however, is patient and in truth he does not say that it is a bad thing to aspire to be first, indeed he even offers the means to get there, that is, to make oneself last. And so in this text we go from one marvel to another because the only way to become first is simple for Jesus and is within the reach of anyone: whoever wants to be first should put himself in last place and serve everyone as one would a child. This is not enough: only by doing so does one accept Jesus and add him: also "he who sent me". Our model is therefore Jesus washing the disciples' feet in the cenacle, as recounted in John's gospel, and we let his words resound in our hearts: 'Do you understand what I have done for you? You call me the Master and the Lord, and rightly so, for I am. If therefore I, the Lord and the Master, have washed your feet, you too must wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you" (13:12-15).

  +Giovanni D'Ercole  Good Sunday to you all