The Danger of Greatness
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Gospel
Mk 9:30-37
They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he would not have any one know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him; and when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to ask him.
And they came to Caper´na-um; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they were silent; for on the way they had discussed with one another who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the twelve; and he said to them, “If any one would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” And he took a child, and put him in the midst of them; and taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”
Readings are from Dynamic Catholic’s New Testament Bible: RSV Catholic Edition
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Transcript
The Danger of Greatness
Welcome back to Radical and Relevant. I'm Matthew Kelly. We're exploring the genius of Jesus in the Gospels. Each day, we're looking for a word, a phrase, or an idea from today's gospel reading, to feed our hearts, to nourish our minds, to inspire our souls, so that we can go out into the world with our lives anchored in the gospel. Today's reading comes from Mark 9:30-37. They went on from there and passed through Galilee, and he would not have anyone know it. For he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, "The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days, he will rise." But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to ask him. And they came to Capernaum.
And when he was in the house, he asked them, "What were you discussing on the way?" But they were silent, for on the way they had been discussing with one another who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the 12, and he said to them, "If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all." And he took a child and put him in the midst. And taking him in his arms, he said to them, "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives not me, but him who sent me." What jumps out at you today? We live in a culture where everyone's always trying to be the greatest. So the disciples along the road, they're discussing, okay, which of them is the greatest. And we see this conversation taking place in so many places and so many times and in so many ways.
And one of the kids the other day was saying this football player is the GOAT, the greatest of all time. And then Harry said, "Well, do you agree, Dad?" I said, "Well, I don't know. It seems like every time I turn around, there's a new GOAT. There's a whole herd of GOATs now." And you've got to think about the phrase, the greatest of all time. Well, we've been only playing football for, I don't know, how long that is, maybe 100 years or so. And all time, there's still a lot of time in all time to go. Little Harry's looking at me thinking, "I didn't think about it like that." Anyway, there is this sense in us. There is this pride in us to want to be set apart. And we're called to be set apart. That's why we have the desire, but we're called to be set apart for God in humility. We're not called to be set apart in pride, in accolades, in any of those things. Let us go out into the world today humbly, as we're called to be. Humbly, moving humbly, living justly, loving tenderly, walking humbly with our God. Have an amazing day and remember, be bold, be Catholic.
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