Reflection for Tuesday February 21, Seventh Week in Ordinary Time; Mark 9:30-37

Gospel: Mark 9:30-37
Jesus and his disciples 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 the Son of Man 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 the 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.

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Reflection:
Why do you follow Jesus?

As Jesus and the disciples were walking He told them: “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise.” But they did not pay much attention to what Jesus told them because they were also busy conversing as to who amongst them is the greatest.

We assume that Jesus and the disciples were just through doing their mission of preaching the kingdom of God. They performed miracles such as: Healing the sick, expelling demons and a lot more. Because of these miraculous acts that they have done the disciple’s high regard for themselves got the better of them. They were already angling to covet the title as the greatest among the disciples.

Are we not like the disciples? Do we not have hidden motives when we do acts of kindness? Do we not desire to be praised for what we do?  Do we not feel proud when we do good things? Was it possible that the disciples were feeding their own egos that is why they were already discussing who was the greatest amongst them?

In the midst of their bloated egos, Jesus gave them a valuable lesson about humility and on how it is to become humble servants of the Lord and the people. Thus He told them: “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” In other words if you want to be the leader then be a humble servant leader who is always ready to serve not minding the accolades and honors. Inside the heart of a true leader is the desire to humbly serve, he is always there silently walking his talk, practicing what he preaches. This is what Jesus wanted the disciples to imbibe: For them to become humble servants.

This is also what Jesus wants for us but some of us are the opposite of the servant leader that Jesus wants the disciples to become. Instead of putting the title leader into our hearts we put it instead into our heads. That is why we become fake and arrogant leaders who only want to give orders. Who only want to abuse and take advantage of our innocent followers, we therefore only want to serve our own personal interest. The servant leadership that Jesus wants us to have is permanently eased out from our system because what takes over is our greed for power and our arrogance.

What must we do so that we can rightfully claim that we truly follow the greatest servant leader who ever walked this earth?  We must be humble at all times, we must continuously decrease while Jesus continuously increase through our acts of humility.

The mistake of many of us who follow Jesus is we often times act without humility. We feel that we are above all because we have this distorted sense that we are close to Jesus when in fact we are not. Our closeness or intimacy with Jesus is not defined by our religious titles, ranks and position neither it is defined by the frequency of our worship for Him.

Our closeness to Jesus is determined only by how we live HIS virtue of humility. – Marino J. Dasmarinas