Word to the Wise
Sunday, September 20, 2009 - Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
[Wisdom 2:12, 17-20; James 3:16 - 4:3; Mark 9:30-37]"If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all." Taking a child, he placed 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."
Most of us have heard the term, "the received wisdom," in reference to a common belief about what to do in a given circumstance. In Jesus' time, status was a very sensitive thing and the Twelve were not beyond arguing over their relative importance in Jesus' scheme of things. They shared the common cultural "wisdom" about the importance of personal status. (It's still a challenge - just look at the way people are seated at an "important" banquet.) For that reason, Jesus gives them what would appear to be a very paradoxical admonition. He chooses the most powerless person (by "received wisdom") in the society of the time, a child, and tells them that they must embrace the most powerless persons if they wish to be his followers. He would later demonstrate powerlessness in the most graphic way possible by embracing the cross! At the Dominican priory of San Marcos in Florence, where the Dominican friar-artist Fra Angelico did some of his most famous work on the walls inside and outside the priory, there is a dramatic fresco in the open cloister of St. Dominic at the foot of the cross with his arms around the cross and the body of Jesus shedding blood on him! It is a continual "preaching" by this great friar-artist about the "wisdom" which Jesus offers. The "received" wisdom about the importance of having as much power as one can attain in regard to one's own destiny and circumstances is turned on its head by Jesus' teaching. The first scripture for today from the Book of Wisdom found an echo in the early Christian community in its reflection on Jesus' fate. St. Paul reminds us in First Corinthians: We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. [1 Cor. 1:23-25] In a world where status and power - whether domestic, local, regional, national or international - are all important, our faith rejects that status and power and challenges us to embrace powerlessness. It seems a "stumbling block" and "foolishness" but it is the wisdom offered by Jesus Christ. Like the Twelve apostles, we may need to be reminded of this in the form of a child or anyone else who is most vulnerable to our endless desire for power! AMEN
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