Absent Ecclesiology

(Mk 9:38-40)

It’s not strange that the holy Inquisition was born in the time of an absent ecclesiology.

The ‘leaven’ of the Pharisees and Herod (Mk 8:14) leads Christ's direct disciples to a sealed mentality - according to which if someone "is not one of us" [«he did not follow us» v. 38] he must be marginalized.

There is no trivial criterion that gives imprimatur of being able to discriminate “faithful” and “not”.

It’s worth: how important is the Person of the Son of man, for our life and in our daily choices?

For the Lord, what matters is not formal belonging - which tends to homologate.

In fact, we see that it’s precisely situations outside the lines that become a goad: they urge dull and opaque ‘christians’ to become a Seed.

Thus, even the "community" is not important because it considers itself as such.

The universal call to the promotion of humanity is divine: a wealth that flies over obstacles, a heritage of joy from wherever it comes.

If relegated and locked in the filing cabinets, the history of Salvation does not become life of the saved.

«But Jesus said: Do not prevent him. In fact, there is no one who does a powerful wonder in my name and immediately afterwards he can speak ill of me» (v.39).

With his intimates, the Master doesn’t use diplomatic language [expressions careful not to offend their susceptibility as experts].

The formation of the disciples is essential to the construction of the Kingdom with wide boundaries; above all, mental.

There are models in esoteric religions. Not here: only charisms, even very personal ones - a condition of true love.

We are ruled by God - the only one who knows what it arouses in each one, and ‘where to go’.

Jesus is the revelator and cornerstone of this happy, unthinkable News: but in the sense of intimate Motive and Motor, completely non-exterior - which calls the person in a way that seems incomprehensible to others.

Christ marks his friendship in the life of believers as the center and axis.  Yet there are many gestures and sensitivities that the new world arouses, and likewise make his Presence leak out.

Nor does He tire of repeating what we do not wish to understand.

He orders only to ‘perceive’ the reality well (Mk 8:27-29) where the secret of God is hidden - that conformist thought is not even remotely able to imagine (Mk 8:30-35).

‘Standard’ has no specific weight for the excess of the adventure of Faith.

The imbalance of love is personal: it serenely admits the diversity and eccentric increase of life, that follows.

Such is the new awareness of the Mission made in Listening, and in respect not only towards the intelligence and culture of others, but also towards oneself.

No one has a monopoly on Grace, which is why we do not shrink our hearts from canons or fashions.

In the truth of the Good, the sense of ownership is out of place.

To internalize and live the message:

What weight do material interests, the empty rigidity, or uninhibited fantasies of those who (without even having a title) ape petty hierarchies and fulminate the different with mediocre impersonal sentences have on you?

How do you live the Word: «Who is not against, is for»?

[Wednesday 7th wk. in O.T.  26 February 2025]

Gospel presents one of those episodes in Christ’s life which, even if they are noted, so to speak en passant, contain a profound meaning (cf. Mk 9:38-41). The event involved someone who was not a follower of Jesus but who had expelled demons in his name. The Apostle John, a young man and ardently zealous as he was, wanted to prevent him but Jesus did not permit this; on on the contrary, he drew inspiration from this circumstance to teach his disciples that God could work good and even miraculous things even outside their circle, and that it is possible to cooperate with the cause of the Kingdom of God in different ways, even by simply offering a missionary a glass of water (v. 41). St Augustine wrote in this regard: “as, therefore, there is in the Catholic — meaning the Church — something which is not Catholic, so there may be something which is Catholic outside the Catholic Church” (cf. On Baptism, Against the Donatists, PL 43, VII, 39, 77). 

Therefore if a stranger to the community does good works in Christ’s name, so long as he does so with upright intentions and with respect, members of the Church must not feel jealous but must rejoice. Even within the Church, people can find it difficult, in the spirit of deep communion, to value and appreciate good things achieved by the different ecclesial entities. Instead, we must all and always be able to appreciate one another, praising God for the infinite “creativity” with which he acts in the Church and in the world.

The stream of invective of the Apostle James against the dishonest rich who rely on wealth accumulated by abuse, rings out in today’s Liturgy (cf. Jas 5:1-6). St Caesarius of Arles says in this regard in one of his sermons: “riches can do no harm to a good man, so long as he gives them compassionately, just as they cannot help a wicked man, so long as he keeps them greedily for himself or wastes them in dissipation” (Sermons, 35, 4). While the Apostle James’ words put us on guard against the worthless desire for material goods, they are a powerful appeal to use them with a view to solidarity and the common good, always acting with fairness and morality at all levels.

Dear friends, let us pray through the intercession of Mary Most Holy that we may be able to rejoice in every act and initiative for good without envy or jealousy and that we may use earthly goods wisely, in the constant search for heavenly goods.

[Pope Benedict, Angelus 30 September 2012]

The text of this Way of the Cross was written by a Christian layman, a member of the Orthodox Church. This layman feels that he is an ordinary person, and he accepted the invitation with great emotion and gratitude for at least two main reasons.

First of all, because on the path to Golgotha there can be no more separation. Christ's death of love makes any attitude other than one of penitence and reconciliation derisory.

Secondly, because writing a Way of the Cross means meditating, through a strange mystical experience, on the words and gestures of God made man as he takes on our condition to the full, to know death from within and open it up to resurrection.

There are, as we have seen in recent years, two versions of the Stations of the Cross. The most recent one only quotes and comments on texts from the gospel. The older ones add stations born of medieval sensitivity, especially Franciscan: such as the three falls of Jesus, or his encounter with Veronica, scenes that are commented with texts from the Old Testament.

So many paintings or sculptures on the walls of churches, in Western Europe and now everywhere in the world, so many chapels and so many crosses erected along pilgrimage routes, in the mountains, have made the representations of these scenes of the Way of the Cross familiar to all. And this is why the commentator has preferred to follow the traditional form, in order to enter fully and without losing anything of his own vision of redemption, into the sensibility of the Catholic world.

It is often repeated that the Christian West put the emphasis on Good Friday and the East on Easter. This would be to forget that the Cross and the Resurrection are inseparable, as this commentary points out. The stigmatised of the Catholic world knew (and know) that the blood flowing from their wounds is a blood of light, and the Orthodox, by celebrating during Vespers on Good Friday the office of the "holy sufferings", or by affirming that every man of prayer and compassion is a staurophore, that is, a "bearer of the Cross", have always understood that only the Cross is the bearer of resurrection.

For an Orthodox, to enter into the Franciscan spirituality of the Way of the Cross was to attempt to underline its not only human but divine-human depth. For it is God himself who on Golgotha humanly suffers our desperate agonies in order to open up for us (perhaps unexpected) paths of resurrection.

The modern age, as we know, has waged a fierce and merciless trial against God, both He the Almighty, in the human sense of the word (so why is the world absurd and evil?), and He who created us free, but knowing what we would do with our freedom. It was necessary to show - try to show - that to the insoluble question of evil, the only answer is precisely the Way of the Cross.

God voluntarily descends into evil, into death, - an evil and a death for which he is not at all responsible, for which he perhaps does not even have the idea, as a contemporary theologian put it - he descends to place himself forever between nothingness and us, to make us feel, to make us live, that at the bottom of things, there is not nothingness, but love.

God beyond God, this 'ocean of clarity', and this man covered in blood and spit who staggers and falls under the weight of all our crosses, is the same, yes indeed he is the same in his transcendence and in his 'madness of love'. Such antinomy makes the unimaginable originality of Christianity. The suffering of the body, the social mockery, the despair of the forsaken soul, all come together for God to reveal Himself here, not as the fullness that crushes, judges and condemns, but as the limitless openness of love in the limitless respect of our freedom.

Here the unthinkable distance between God and the Crucified - "My God, my God why have you forsaken me? " - is filled all of a sudden with the breath of the Spirit, the breath of the resurrection.

The last stage of human history and the becoming of the cosmos opens: in the blood that gushes forth from the pierced side of Christ, the fire that he came to cast upon the earth now burns, this fire of the Holy Spirit that fertilises our freedom so that it becomes capable of changing the long passion of history into resurrection. An outpouring of peace and light that cannot precisely manifest itself except through this freedom that he liberates and that sets him free

Hence undoubtedly the last feature of this Way of the Cross taken up in its traditional form: the greater role of women, the only ones left faithful, apart from John, the most exposed, the most capable of love. As demonstrated by the gesture of Veronica who wipes Christ's Face with a veil on which it is imprinted and transmitted to our churches: so many Holy Faces in which the face of God is shown in its human flesh, so that we may see in God every human face.

[Olivier Clément, presentation Via Crucis 10 April 1998]

The Gospel of today’s Liturgy recounts a brief dialogue between Jesus and the Apostle John, who speaks on behalf of the entire group of disciples. They saw a man who was casting out demons in the name of the Lord, but they stopped him because he was not part of their group. At this point, Jesus invited them not to hinder those who do good, because they contribute to the fulfilment of God’s plan (cf. Mk 9:38-41). Then he admonished them: instead of dividing people into good and bad, we are all called to be vigilant over our own hearts, lest we succumb to evil and bring scandal to others (cf. vv. 42-45, 47-48).

In short, Jesus’ words reveal a temptation, and offer an exhortation. The temptation is to be “closed off”. The disciples would like to hinder a good deed simply because it is performed by someone who does not belong to their group. They think they have the “exclusive right over Jesus”, and that they are the only ones authorised to work for the Kingdom of God. But this way, they end up feeling that they are privileged and consider others as outsiders, to the extent of becoming hostile towards them. Brothers and sisters, every closure tends in fact to keep us at a distance from those who do not think like we do, and this — we know —  is the root of many great evils in history: of  absolutism that has often generated dictatorships and of great violence towards those who are different.

But we need to be vigilant about closure in the Church too. Because the devil, who is the divider — this is what the word “devil” means, the one who divides — always insinuates suspicions to divide and exclude people. He tempts by using cunning, and it can happen as with those disciples, who ended up excluding even someone who had cast out the devil himself! Sometimes we too, instead of being humble and open communities, can give the impression of being the “top of the class” and keep others at a distance; instead of trying to walk with everyone, we can show off our “believer’s license”: “I am a believer”, “I am Catholic”, “I belong to this association, to that one”, and the others, poor things, do not. This is a sin. Showing off one’s “believer’s license” to judge and exclude. Let us ask for the grace to overcome the temptation to judge and to categorise, and may God preserve us from the “nest” mentality, that of jealously guarding ourselves in the small group of those who consider themselves good: the priest with his loyal followers, the pastoral workers closed off among themselves so that no one can infiltrate, the movements and associations in their own particular charism, and so on. Closed. All this runs the risk of turning Christian communities into places of separation and not of communion. The Holy Spirit does not want closure; He wants openness, welcoming communities where there is a place for everyone.

[Pope Francis, Angelus 26 September 2021]

[Institution's transience? What about compactness? What about expansion?]

(Mk 9:30-37)

"A little boy was playing at being a priest with a boy his age on the steps of his house. All went well until his little friend, fed up with just being an altar boy, climbed to a higher step and started preaching. The child rebuked him sharply: 'I can only preach! You can't preach! My turn! You spoil the game, you are bad!' Summoned by the shouts, his mother intervened and explained to the child that out of duty of hospitality he had to allow the other to preach. At this point the child sulked for a moment, then brightening up he climbed to the top step and replied: 'All right, he can continue preaching, but I will do God' [...]".

(B. Ferrero, La Scala, in: C'è Qualcuno Lassù?, p.24)

The mentality of precedence and supremacy was ingrained to the point that even in Paradise hierarchies were said to exist.

But «Son of Man» already designates in First Testament the character of a holiness that surpasses the ancient fiction of rulers, who would pile on top of one another reciting the same script.

Instead, in the Kingdom of Jesus there must be a lack of ranks - which is why the plan of the most ambitious Apostles does not match His.

«Son of man» is the person according to a criterion of humanisation, not a beast that prevails because it’s stronger than the others (Dan 7).

Every man with a heart of flesh - not of wild animal, nor of stone - spontaneously identifies himself with the «paidìon» (vv.36-37): a house servant, the shop boy.

The term [diminutive] designates the person who is always attentive to the needs of others, who makes himself available.

It alludes precisely to the dimension of holiness transmissible to anyone, but creative like love, therefore all to be discovered!

Jesus embraces an 8-12 year old boy who counted for nothing at that time - in fact, a house valet, an attendant.

It is the only identification Jesus loves and wishes to give us.

«If anyone wants to be first» (v.35): the Master does not exclude our right to do something great... but He doesn’t identify it with having, power and appearance.

Rather, it relies on our freedom to give, to go down and to serve - a work of emancipation entrusted first and foremost to the top of the class (vv.31-35).

The Lord makes us reflect on authentic fulfilment.

It is not an external conquest, but an intimate and made part of oneself.

It is thus able to sculpt our profound identity, in its richness of faces and in the time of a Path.

Aristotle stated that - beyond artificial petitions of principle or apparent proclamations - one only really loves oneself. This is no small question mark.

Granted and ungranted, the growth, promotion and blossoming of our qualities lies within a wise Way, an even interrupted journey that knows how to allow itself the right pace - even to encounter new states of being.

Genuine and mature love expands the boundaries of the ego-loving primacy of self, visibility and return, understanding the You in the I.

Itinerary and Vector that then expands capacities and life. Otherwise, in all circumstances and unfortunately at any age, we will remain in the puerile game of those who scramble up the steps to prevail.

As Pope Francis said about the mafia phenomena: «There is a need for men and women of Love, not honour!».

The Tao Tê Ching (XL) writes: «Weakness is what the Tao uses». And Master Wang Pi comments: «The high has the low for a foundation, the noble has the vile for a foundation».

Thus the ‘personal’ flows into the plural and global.

To internalise and live the message:

In the balance of nature, have you ever seen a plant that lives only in the light? Or a creature that did not have its shelter in the shade?

[Tuesday 7th wk. in O.T.  February 25, 2025]

(Mk 9:30-37)

"A little boy was playing at being an altar boy together with a boy his age, on the steps of his house. All went well until his little friend, fed up with just being an altar boy, climbed to a higher step and began to preach. The child rebuked him sharply: 'I alone can preach! You cannot preach! My turn! You spoil the game, you are bad!' Summoned by the shouting, his mother intervened and explained to the child that out of duty of hospitality he had to allow the other to preach. At this point the child sulked for a moment, then brightening up he climbed to the top step and replied: 'All right, he can continue preaching, but I will do God' [...]".

(B. Ferrero, La Scala, in: C'è Qualcuno Lassù?, p.24)

The mentality of precedence and supremacy was ingrained to the point that even in heaven, hierarchies were said to exist.

But 'Son of Man' already designates from the OT the character of a holiness that surpasses the ancient fiction of the rulers, who piled on top of each other reciting the same script.

The masses were left speechless: whatever ruler seized power, the petty crowd remained subdued and suffocated.

The same rule was in force in religions, whose leaders lavished the people with a strong horde drive and the contentment of the gregarious.

Instead, in the Kingdom of Jesus there must be a lack of ranks - which is why the most ambitious Apostles' plan does not match his.

"The 'Son of Man' is the person according to a criterion of humanisation, not a beast that prevails because it is stronger than the others (Dan 7).

Every man with a heart of flesh - not of beast, nor of stone - spontaneously identifies himself with the "paidìon" (vv.36-37): a household servant, the shop boy.

The term (diminutive) designates the person who is always attentive to the needs of others, who makes himself available.

It alludes precisely to the dimension of holiness transmissible to anyone, but creative like love, therefore all to be discovered!

In the Gospels, the Son of Man - the true and full development of the divine plan for mankind - is not hindered by the habitués of the sacred precincts, but by the habitués of the places of evil.

The growth and humanisation of the people is not opposed by 'sinners', but precisely by those who would have the ministry of making the Face of God known to all!

Jesus embraces an 8-12 year old boy who at that time counted for nothing - precisely, a house servant, a shop boy.

It is the only identification that Jesus loves and wishes to give us: that with the one who cannot afford not to recognise the needs of others.

A dimension of holiness without distinctive haloes: shareable, because it is linked to empathy, to spontaneous friendship towards women and men.

Obviously: this is not a proposal compromised with doctrinaire religion and discipline that drives back eccentricities: far more sympathetic and amiable.

That of the Son of Man is the holiness that makes us unique, not one that is always abhorring and exorcising the danger of the unusual.

This is precisely why - instead - the fixation on antecedence has characterised the life of the Church for centuries; as has the feudal and monarchical idol of pyramidal stability for life.

"If anyone wants to be first" (v.35): the Master does not exclude our right to do something great... but he does not identify it with having, power and appearance.

For a path of Bliss, He does not excite the impulses of holding, rising and dominating: they do not give Happiness.

Rather, it relies on our freedom to give, to go down and to serve - a franchise entrusted first and foremost to the top of the class (vv.31-35) who have grown accustomed to overwhelming others with moralisms and judgments.

God does not deny the legitimate urges of the self to be recognised. We do not participate in life as gods destined to fail, but as promoted - not suppressing our own requirements.

But not to win the race. The Lord makes us reflect on authentic fulfilment.

This is not an external conquest, but an intimate and self-made one. It is thus able to sculpt our deepest character, in its richness of faces and in the time of a Path.

Aristotle stated that - beyond artificial petitions of principle or apparent proclamations - one only really loves oneself. It is no small question mark.

Granted and not granted, the growth, promotion and blossoming of our qualities is located within a wise Path, a (even interrupted) path that knows how to give itself the right rhythm - even to encounter new states of being.

Genuine and mature love expands the boundaries of the ego lover of primacy, visibility and gain, understanding the You in the I.

Itinerary and Vector that then expands skills and life. Otherwise in all circumstances and unfortunately at any age we will remain in the puerile game of those who scramble up the steps to prevail.As Pope Francis said about the mafia phenomena: 'There is a need for men and women of Love, not honour!

The Tao Tê Ching (XL) writes: 'Weakness is what the Tao uses'. And Master Wang Pi comments: 'The high has the low for a foundation, the noble has the vile for a foundation'.

Thus the personal flows into the plural and global:

"This universalistic perspective emerges, among other things, from the presentation Jesus made of himself not only as 'Son of David', but as 'son of man'. The title of 'Son of Man', in the language of Jewish apocalyptic literature inspired by the vision of history in the Book of the Prophet Daniel (cf. 7:13-14), recalls the person who comes 'with the clouds of heaven' (v. 13) and is an image that heralds an entirely new kingdom, a kingdom sustained not by human powers, but by the true power that comes from God. Jesus uses this rich and complex expression and refers it to Himself to manifest the true character of His messianism, as a mission destined for the whole man and every man, overcoming all ethnic, national and religious particularism. And it is precisely in following Jesus, in letting oneself be drawn into his humanity and thus into communion with God, that one enters into this new kingdom, which the Church announces and anticipates, and which overcomes fragmentation and dispersion".

[Pope Benedict, Consistory 24 November 2012].

Transience of the institution? And the compactness? And expansion?

The mentality of precedence was ingrained to the point that even in heaven hierarchies were said to exist.

But "Son of Man" already designates from the OT the character of a holiness that you do not expect, that surpasses the ancient fiction, that of the dominators, who piled on top of each other reciting the same script; a mentality of competition and supremacy.

The masses were left high and dry: whatever ruler seized power, the petty crowd remained subdued and suffocated. 

The same rule was in force in religions, whose leaders lavished the people with a strong horde drive and the contentment of the gregarious.

Instead, Jesus' Kingdom lacked ranks - which is why the most ambitious Apostles' plan did not match his.

"Son of man" is the true person according to a criterion of humanisation; not a beast that prevails because it is stronger than the others (Dan 7); not a fair, but one who educates, convincing.

Every man conforming to the divine Plan and with a heart of flesh, not of wolf, spontaneously identifies with the 'paidìon' (vv.36-37): a house servant, a shop boy.

It depicts the person who is always attentive to the needs of others, who puts himself at their disposal.

Dimension of holiness transmissible to anyone, but as creative as love, therefore all to be discovered! Danger then for the stability of any closed 'system'.

How to guard against it? And his reputation? Is it possible for community leaders to renounce precedence? Unacceptable - perhaps - for those who value unilateral expansion!

A church without a recognisable chain of command would probably not appear to be a stable group. It would seem to some to be a transitional institution. 

Furthermore [from the point of view of the 'leaders']: what will make the like-minded individuals and the diverse mass homogeneous? Difficult to have a naturally compact crowd!

A person must be convinced, and it is not easy to persuade them!

The usual reproaches about conduct are not enough; one must understand the events.

And if one demands its adherence to a largely fixed cultural paradigm, here is the external coercion of the multitude in which it lives.

[Hence, a hierarchy of co-optees that guarantees fixity of belief, defined even in detail].

By natural reckoning, a primitive mass can evolve into an articulate and well-organised group if it is subjected to leaders who ensure durability through a collective formation that takes hold and inculcates itself in the primitive categories of thought codes.

And such a coining must be easy to use, so that it corresponds to all the varied situations on the ground.

Here, then, is a catechesis capable of inculcating itself through a simple proposal, immediately enjoyable; complacent and recognisable to the crowd.

Indeed, we note that in the Gospels the 'Son of Man' - the true and full development of the divine plan on humanity - is not hindered by 'sinners', but by the very ones who would have the ministry of making him known.

Instead, the Son has an identity that is not at all prone to the calculation of balanced concordances; his signature is simple, yet lordly.

Its benevolence is placed on another plane: the horizon of the God who reveals himself.

And it does so without artifice; in quality relationships and in configured and real Good; not in positions of domination, command, overpowering.

Jesus embraces the 8-12 year old boy ["paidìon"] who at that time counted for nothing.

Precisely, a house valet, a shop steward; He who cannot afford not to recognise the needs of others.

A dimension of holiness without distinctive haloes; sharable, because it is linked to sympathy towards anyone - not to a doctrine and discipline that push back the danger of the Uncommon.

Yet the fixation on antecedence has characterised the life of the Church for centuries.

Working in the archives, I noticed what asperities lay behind the debates about the roles and prelations to be displayed in society [even in confraternity positions during processions... let us not talk about at the table; until after the war even in group photos of clerics].

Of course, the Lord does not exclude the right to make one's own life something great, indeed; but for the Happiness of his People he does not rely on the impulses of restraining, ascending and dominating.

Rather, he relies on the freedom to give, to go down and to serve - first and foremost of his own firsts. All to make the simple breathe and be born authentically; and it is possible, if the Mission enjoyed a horizon of non-opportunistic liberality.

In the perspective of Communion - coexistence, conviviality of differences - as a supreme good that is neither fleeting nor spoilt by transformations, God's proposal does not deny the ego's legitimate urges to be recognised.

We do not participate in life as destined to fail, but as promoted ones who do not suppress their own requirements. But not to win the race.

The Lord makes us reflect on authentic fulfilment.

Not an external conquest, but an intimate and made one's own; sculpting our profound identity in the time of a Path, not flattened on what already appears to be uncharacterised from an educational point of view.

Aristotle asserted that - beyond external, artificial petitions of principle - one only really loves oneself...

Granted and not granted, the promotion and blossoming of our qualities lies within a Path that expands the boundaries of the ego [lover of primacy, visibility and gain] by encompassing the You in the I.

Itinerary and Vector that then expands skills and life. Otherwise, in every circumstance and unfortunately in every age, we will remain in the puerile game of those who scamper up the steps.

As Pope Francis said, pointing to mafia phenomena: "There is a need for men and women of Love, not of honour!".

Deep inner distance between Jesus and the disciples

After Peter, on behalf of the disciples, has professed faith in Him, recognising Him as the Messiah (cf. Mk 8:29), Jesus begins to speak openly of what will happen to Him at the end. The Evangelist reports three successive predictions of death and resurrection, in chapters 8, 9 and 10: in them Jesus announces ever more clearly the destiny that awaits him and its intrinsic necessity. The passage [...] contains the second of these announcements. Jesus says: "The Son of Man - an expression by which he designates himself - is delivered into the hands of men and they will kill him; but when he is killed, he will rise again after three days" (Mk 9:31). The disciples "however did not understand these words and were afraid to question him" (v. 32).

In fact, reading this part of Mark's account, it is evident that between Jesus and the disciples there was a deep inner distance; they were, so to speak, on two different wavelengths, so that the Master's discourses were not understood, or were only superficially understood. The Apostle Peter, immediately after manifesting his faith in Jesus, allows himself to rebuke him for predicting that he will have to be rejected and killed. After the second announcement of the passion, the disciples begin to argue about who among them is the greatest (cf. Mk 9:34); and after the third, James and John ask Jesus to be allowed to sit at his right hand and at his left, when he will be in glory (cf. Mk 10:35-40). But there are several other signs of this distance: for example, the disciples fail to heal an epileptic boy, whom Jesus then heals by the power of prayer (cf. Mk 9:14-29); or when children are presented to Jesus, the disciples rebuke them, and Jesus instead, indignant, makes them stay, and affirms that only those who are like them can enter the Kingdom of God (cf. Mk 10:13-16).

What does this tell us? It reminds us that God's logic is always "other" than ours, as God himself revealed through the prophet Isaiah: "My thoughts are not your thoughts, / your ways are not my ways" (Is 55:8). This is why following the Lord always requires from man a profound con-version - from us all -, a change in the way of thinking and living, it requires opening one's heart to listening in order to allow oneself to be enlightened and transformed inwardly. A key point in which God and man differ is pride: in God there is no pride, because He is all fullness and is all out to love and give life; in us men, on the other hand, pride is intimately rooted and requires constant vigilance and purification. We, who are small, aspire to appear great, to be the first, while God, who is truly great, is not afraid to lower Himself and make Himself last. And the Virgin Mary is perfectly "in tune" with God: let us invoke her with confidence, that she may teach us to faithfully follow Jesus on the path of love and humility.

[Pope Benedict, Angelus 23 September 2012]

After Peter, on the disciples’ behalf, had professed his faith in him, recognizing him as the Messiah (cf. Mk 8:29), Jesus began to speak openly of what was going to happen to him at the end. The Evangelist records three successive predictions of his death and resurrection in chapters 8, 9 and 10. In them Jesus announces ever more clearly the destiny that awaits him and the intrinsic need for it. This Sunday’s passage contains the second of these announcements. Jesus says: “The Son of man” — an expression that designates himself — will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him; and when he is killed, after three days he will rise” (Mk 9:31). “But” the disciples “did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to ask him” (v. 32). 

In fact, on reading this part of Mark’s account the great inner distance that existed between Jesus and his disciples is clearly apparent; they are, so to speak, on two different wavelengths so that the Teacher’s discourses are either not understood, or are only superficially understood. Straight after professing his faith in Jesus, the Apostle Peter takes the liberty of reproaching the Lord because he predicted that he was to be rejected and killed. 

After the second prediction of the passion, the disciples began to discuss with one another who was the greatest among them (cf. Mk 9:34), and after the third, James and John asked Jesus to sit one at his right hand and one at his left when he would come into glory (cf Mk 10:35-40). However, there are various other signs of this gap: for example, the disciples do not succeed in healing an epileptic boy whom Jesus subsequently heals with the power of prayer (cf. Mk 9:14-29); and when children are brought to Jesus the disciples admonish them; Jesus on the contrary is indignant, has them stay and says that only those who are like them will enter the Kingdom of God (cf. Mk 10:13-16).

What does all this tell us? it reminds us that, the logic of God is always “different” from ours, just as God himself revealed through the mouth of Isaiah: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, / neither are your ways my ways” (Is 55:8). For this reason following the Lord always demands of human beings — of all of us — a profound con-version, a change in our manner of thinking and living, it demands that the heart be opened to listening, to let ourselves be illuminated and transformed from within.

A key point in which God and man differ is pride: in God there is no pride, for he is wholly fullness and is wholly oriented to loving and giving life instead in we human beings pride is deeply rooted and requires constant vigilance and purification. We, who are small, aspire to appear great, to be among the first, whereas God who is truly great is not afraid of humbling himself and putting himself last. And the Virgin Mary is perfectly “in tune” with God: let us call upon her with trust, so that she may teach us to follow Jesus faithfully on the path of love and humility.

[Pope Benedict, Angelus 23 September 2012]

1. “Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased” (Mt 12:18; cf. Is 42:1-4).

The theme of this Message for the 40th World Day of Prayer for Vocations invites us to return to the roots of the Christian vocation, to the story of the first person called by the Father, his Son Jesus. He is “the servant” of the Father, foretold by the prophets as the one whom the Father has chosen and formed from his mother’s womb (cf. Is 49, 1-6), the beloved whom the Father upholds and in whom he is well pleased (cf. Is 42, 1-9), in whom he has placed his spirit and to whom he has transmitted his power (cf. Is 49, 5), and as the one whom he will exalt (cf. Is 52,13 – 53,12).

The inspired text gives an essentially positive connotation to the term “servant”, which is immediately evident. In today’s culture, the person who serves is considered inferior; but in sacred history the servant is the one called by God to carry out a particular action of salvation and redemption. The servant knows that he has received all he has and is. As a result, he also feels called to place what he has received at the service of others.

In the Bible, service is always linked to a specific call that comes from God. For this reason, it represents the greatest fulfilment of the dignity of the creature, as well as that which invokes the creature’s mysterious, transcendent dimension. This was the case in the life of Jesus, too, the faithful Servant who was called to carry out the universal work of redemption.

2. “Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter …” (Is 53:7).

In Sacred Scripture, there is a strong and clear link between service and redemption, as well as between service and suffering, between Servant and Lamb of God. The Messiah is the Suffering Servant who takes on his shoulders the weight of human sin. He is the lamb “led to the slaughter” (Is 53:7) to pay the price of the sins committed by humanity, and thus render to the same humanity the service that it needs most. The Servant is the Lamb who “was oppressed, and was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth” (Is 53:7), thus showing an extraordinary power: the power not to react to evil with evil, but to respond to evil with good.

It is the gentle force of the servant, who finds his strength in God and who, therefore, is made by God to be “light of the nations” and worker of salvation (Is 49:5-6). In a mysterious manner, the vocation to service is invariably a vocation to take part in a most personal way in the ministry of salvation – a partaking that will, among other things, be costly and painful.

3. “… even as the Son of man came not to be served but to serve” (Mt 20:28).

In truth, Jesus is the perfect model of the “servant” of whom Scripture speaks. He is the one who radically emptied himself to take on “the form of a servant” (Phil 2:7) and to dedicate himself totally to the things of the Father (cf. Lk 2:49), as the beloved Son in whom the Father is well pleased (cf. Mt 17:5). Jesus did not come to be served, “but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mt 20:28). He washed the feet of his disciples and obeyed the plan of the Father even unto death, death on a cross (cf. Phil 2:8). Therefore, the Father himself has exalted him, giving him a new name and making him Lord of heaven and of earth (cf. Phil 2:9-11).

How can one not read in the story of the “servant Jesus” the story of every vocation: the story that the Creator has planned for every human being, the story that inevitably passes through the call to serve and culminates in the discovery of the new name, designed by God for each individual? In these “names”, people can grasp their own identity, directing themselves to that self-fulfilment which makes them free and happy. In particular, how can one not read in the parable of the Son, Servant and Lord, the vocational story of the person who is called by Jesus to follow him more closely: that is, to be a servant in the priestly ministry or in religious consecration? In fact, the priestly vocation or the religious vocation are always, by their very nature, vocations to the generous service of God and of neighbour.

Service thus becomes both the path and the valuable means for arriving at a better understanding of one’s own vocation. Diakonia is a true vocational pastoral journey (cf. New Vocations for a New Europe, 27c).

4. “Where I am, there shall my servant be also” (Jn 12:26).

Jesus, Servant and Lord, is also the one who calls. He calls us to be like him, because only in service do human beings discover their own dignity and the dignity of others. He calls to serve as he has served. When interpersonal relationships are inspired to reciprocal service, a new world is created and, in it, an authentic vocational culture is developed.

With this message, I should like, in a way, to give voice to Jesus, so as to propose to young people the ideal of service, and to help them to overcome the temptations of individualism and the illusion of obtaining their happiness in that way. Notwithstanding certain contrary forces, present also in the mentality of today, in the hearts of many young people there is a natural disposition to open up to others, especially to the most needy. This makes them generous, capable of empathy, ready to forget themselves in order to put the other person ahead of their own interests.

Dear young people, service is a completely natural vocation, because human beings are by nature servants, not being masters of their own lives and being, in their turn, in need of the service of others. Service shows that we are free from the intrusiveness of our ego. It shows that we have a responsibility to other people. And service is possible for everyone, through gestures that seem small, but which are, in reality, great if they are animated by a sincere love. True servants are humble and know how to be “useless” (cf. Lk 17:10). They do not seek egoistic benefits, but expend themselves for others, experiencing in the gift of themselves the joy of working for free.

Dear young people, I hope you can know how to listen to the voice of God calling you to service. This is the road that opens up to so many forms of ministry for the benefit of the community: from the ordained ministry to various other instituted and recognised ministries, such as Catechesis, liturgical animation, education of young people and the various expressions of charity (cf. Novo millennio ineunte, 46). At the conclusion of the Great Jubilee, I reminded you that this is “the time for a new ‘creativity’ in charity” (ibidem, 50). Young people, in a special way it is up to you to ensure that charity finds expression, in all its spiritual and apostolic richness.

5. “If any one would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all” (Mk 9:35).

This is how Jesus spoke to the Twelve, when he caught them discussing among themselves “who was the greatest” (Mk 9:34). This is a constant temptation, which does not spare even the one called to preside at the Eucharist, the sacrament of the supreme love of the “Suffering Servant”. Whoever carries out this service is actually called to be a servant in a yet more radical way. He is called, in fact, to act “in persona Christi”, and so to re-live the same condition of Jesus at the Last Supper, being willing, like Jesus, to love until the end, even to the giving of his life. To preside at the Lord’s Supper is, therefore, an urgent invitation to offer oneself in gift, so that the attitude of the Suffering Servant and Lord may continue and grow in the Church.

Dear young men, nurture your attraction to those values and radical choices which will transform your lives into service of others, in the footsteps of Jesus, the Lamb of God. Do not let yourselves be seduced by the call of power and personal ambition. The priestly ideal must be constantly purified from these and other dangerous ambiguities.

The call of the Lord Jesus still resounds today: “If any one serves me, he must follow me” (Jn 12:26). Do not be afraid to accept this call. You will surely encounter difficulties and sacrifices, but you will be happy to serve, you will be witnesses of that joy that the world cannot give. You will be living flames of an infinite and eternal love. You will know the spiritual riches of the priesthood, divine gift and mystery.

6. As at other times, on this occasion, too, we turn our gaze to Mary, Mother of the Church and Star of the new evangelisation. Let us call upon her with trust, so that in the Church there will be no lack of men and women who are ready to respond generously to the invitation of the Lord, who calls to a more direct service of the Gospel:

“Mary, humble servant of God Most High,
the Son to whom you gave birth has made you the servant of humanity.

Your life was a humble and generous service.

You were servant of the Word when the angel
announced to you the divine plan of salvation.

You were servant of the Son, giving him life
and remaining open to his mystery.

You were servant of Redemption,
standing courageously at the foot of the Cross,
close to the Suffering Servant and Lamb,
who was sacrificing himself for love of us.

You were servant of the Church on the day of Pentecost
and with your intercession you continue to generate her in every believer,
even in these our difficult and troubled times.

Let the young people of the third millennium look
to you, young daughter of Israel,
who have known the agitation of a young heart
when faced with the plan of the Eternal God.

Make them able to accept the invitation of your Son
to give their lives wholly for the glory of God.

Make them understand that to serve God satisfies the heart,
and that only in the service of God and of his kingdom
do we realise ourselves in accordance with the divine plan,
and life becomes a hymn of glory to the Most Holy Trinity.

Amen.”

From the Vatican, 16 October 2002

[Pope John Paul II, Message for the XL World Day of Prayer for Vocations]

One cannot live the Gospel by making compromises, otherwise one ends up with the spirit of the world, which aims at dominating others and is "the enemy of God"; but one must choose the path of service. The Pope's reflection, in his homily on Tuesday 25 February, at the Mass at Casa Santa Marta, started from the Gospel passage (Mk 9:30-37) in which Jesus tells the Twelve that if one wants to be first, he is called to make himself last and servant of all.

Jesus knew that along the way the disciples had been arguing among themselves about who was the greatest "by ambition". This fighting saying 'I must go on, I must go up', the Pontiff explained, is the spirit of the world. But the first reading of the day's liturgy (Jas 4:1-10) also echoes this aspect, when the Apostle James reminds us that love of the world is the enemy of God. "This anxiety of worldliness," the Pope remarked, "this anxiety of being more important than others and saying: 'No! I deserve this, I don't deserve that other'. This is worldliness, this - he continued - is the spirit of the world and whoever breathes this spirit, breathes the enmity of God". "Jesus, in another passage, says to the disciples: 'Either you are with me or you are against me'. There is no compromise in the Gospel. And when one wants to live the Gospel by making compromises,' he commented, 'in the end one finds oneself with the worldly spirit, which always seeks to make compromises in order to climb higher, to dominate, to be greater.

So many wars and quarrels come precisely from worldly desires, from passions, the Pope pointed out, referring again to the words of St James. It is true 'today the whole world is sown by wars. But the wars that are among us? Like the one that existed among the apostles: who is the most important?", Francis asked. "'Look at the career I've had: now I can't go backwards!' This is the spirit of the world and this is not Christian. "No! It is my turn! I have to earn more to have more money and more power'. This is the spirit of the world,' the Pontiff stressed. "And then, the wickedness of gossip: gossip. Where does it come from? From envy. The great envious,' Francis reiterated, 'is the devil, we know it, the Bible says so. From envy. By the devil's envy, evil enters the world. Envy is a woodworm that pushes you to destroy, to gossip, to annihilate the other".

In the disciples' dialogue there were all these passions and for this reason, Francis argued, Jesus rebukes them and exhorts them to be servants of all and to take the last place: 'Who is the most important in the Church? - he wondered - The Pope, the bishops, the monsignors, the cardinals, the pastors of the most beautiful parishes, the presidents of lay associations? No! The greatest in the Church is the one who makes himself the servant of all, the one who serves everyone, not the one who has the most titles. And to make this understood, he took a child, placed him in their midst and, embracing him tenderly - because Jesus spoke with tenderness, he had so much of it - he said to them: 'Whoever welcomes a child welcomes me', that is, whoever welcomes the most humble, the most servant. This is the way," Francis said, emphasising again that "the way against the spirit of the world is only one: humility. To serve others, to choose the last place, not to climb'.

One must not, therefore, "negotiate with the spirit of the world", one must not say: "I have a right to this place, because look at the career I have made". Worldliness, in fact, concluded the Pope, "is the enemy of God". Instead, we must listen to this "so wise" and encouraging word that Jesus says in the Gospel: "If anyone wants to be first, let him be last of all, let him be servant of all".

[Pope Francis, St. Martha, in L'Osservatore Romano 26/02/2020]