Mark 9:30-37

Wisdom 2:12, 17-20

Psalm 54:3-4, 5, 6, and 8

James 3:16-4:3

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 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.”

Opening Prayer: Lord God, I am journeying on the way of life. You are my rock and my guide. You will protect me from evil and grant me safe passage to you. I need to trust in you more firmly and abandon myself to your holy will.

Encountering the Word of God

1. The Struggle of the Disciples to Understand: Jesus’ disciples often struggled to understand his teaching and parables about the Kingdom of God. They also struggled to understand Jesus’ prophecies about his upcoming suffering, death, and resurrection. Over time, the Holy Spirit would enlighten their minds and enable them to recall and understand his words. From a merely human point of view, we get how the disciples struggled with Jesus’ prophecies about his death in Jerusalem: Why would this man, who preached with authority and went about doing good, be put to death? If Jesus is the Messiah, sent by God to rule and save his people, then why would he be killed? On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus had to repeat his teaching about his death and resurrection three times to his disciples to make it sink in. Am I slow to understand the mystery of Jesus’ passion, death, resurrection, and ascension?

2. The Thoughts of the Ungodly toward the Righteous One: In the First Reading, the Book of Wisdom reflects on how the ungodly think. The reading foreshadows, the thoughts of those who will hand Jesus over to be crucified. On the one hand, the ungodly think that everything ends with death, that pleasure is to be sought as the highest good, and that the weak should be rejected (Wisdom 1:16-2:11). Divine wisdom reveals that the ungodly persecute the righteous because of their righteousness. This is because the righteous are honest in what they do and have the courage to stand up to the wrongdoing of the ungodly. The wicked go so far as to plot to kill the righteous and test God: “They will persecute and kill the righteous man and see if God intervenes” (Bergsma, The Word of the Lord: Year B, 398). This foreshadows what the religious authorities will say to Jesus on the Cross: “He trusted in God; let him deliver him now if he wants him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God’” (Matthew 27:43).

3. Earthly vs. Heavenly Wisdom: In the Second Reading, James teaches that while peace is sown and cultivated by people who are wise and understanding, war and conflict come from within, from our disordered passions. The wisdom of the world, or what James calls earthly wisdom, is unspiritual and demonic. Instead of showing the way that leads to heaven, earthbound wisdom falls to the sin of the devil, who was motivated by envy and selfish ambition (Wisdom 2:24). “Thus, those who make prestige and worldly success their highest priority behave with the wisdom of the devil” (Anderson and Keating, James, First, Second, and Third John, 76). Earthly wisdom is marked by disorder and wickedness. “Thus, the kind of wisdom that shows the way to worldly success, prestige, and coveted positions only serves to produce instability and evil” (Anderson and Keating, James, First, Second, and Third John, 76-77). The wisdom that comes from God is pure, peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity. Those who cultivate peace will reap the fruit of righteousness and salvation. The truly wise person is “someone whose life is marked by humility, peace, and mercy; that person will receive the reward of righteousness, which is eternal life. Those whose lives are marked by ambition and rivalry are not wise, because they have embraced the wisdom from below that characterizes the devil” (Anderson and Keating, James, First, Second, and Third John, 78). 

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you are the incarnation of Divine Wisdom. Through your words and actions, you have communicated the path of humility and peace that leads to eternal salvation. Help me to reject the demonic wisdom of the world and embrace your wisdom each day.

Living the Word of God: Have I embraced earthly wisdom or heavenly wisdom? When I look at my actions, am I motivated by envy, worldly success, prestige, and ambition? Or are my actions grounded in peace, gentleness, mercy, sincerity, and humble service to others?