Msgr. Michael Woster
Homily from the Televised Mass, NewsCenter1
The 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 22, 2024

We continue today where we left off last week, and the Gospel tells us even the Apostles struggled with the teachings of Jesus and found it hard to understand and then embrace the heart of the Christian message. Part of the challenge is that the many miracles witnessed by the disciples led them to believe that Christ’s divine power would ultimately be used to create a very powerful earthly Kingdom — a kingdom in which they hoped to have a special part and a special position fitting the status of the chosen Twelve. 

So it is we see in the Gospel today that on the one hand the disciples do not want to know too much about our Lord’s teaching — that the Messiah would have to suffer and even die before his Kingdom could be established in the world. They shied away from asking questions about that sensing that this suffering of the Messiah would somehow spill over upon them. But on the other hand, they still had the audacity to fight and argue among themselves about who would be the greatest in that Kingdom once Jesus established it. In other words, the Twelve Apostles are selfish, and frightened, and filled with pride all at the same time. 

Our Lord must have sighed when he overheard their childish bickering and arguments. And so, he patiently calls them aside and instructs them in a most striking and humiliating way. “Do you see this child,” he says. “This child is more important than you. This child is what my Kingdom is all about. This little child — who represents the weakest, the poorest, the simplest, and the least significant people in your midst — is what my life and my Gospel is all about. Do you want to be great?” Jesus is asking. “Then become small. Dedicate your time, your energy, and your life, in helping and taking care of little ones just such as this one.” 

They must have been shocked, the Twelve. Children and women in the time of our Lord along with the poor had the lowest status in society. What glory or benefit is there in serving them? 

I often say that Jesus not only preached the Gospel, but Jesus is the Gospel. When we look at his life, we see that there is almost nothing in it for himself. Everything he did that is publicly recorded is about his service to somebody else rather than himself. We look at such a life and we admire it, but like the early apostles, we shy away from it and period we don’t wish to investigate it or ask any questions about it. We sense that to do so will make us pretty uncomfortable and will call us to change. 

So, as we try to work up our courage to truly look at Christ’s life as a model of our own, it is good to remember that Jesus lived this way not by divine sheer willpower which we sometimes think. We say, “Oh, he can do that. He’s divine.” No! Jesus does this quite easily and naturally. He lived this way because he honestly and truly loved people. All people. And each and every person he encountered in this human life was the subject of his love and concern. 

My dear friends this is the grace that we must seek and find — to love as Jesus loves. To shatter our mirrors, if you will, to stop looking at ourselves and love the faces we see around us more than our own. And so, my suggested take away for all of us this week is very, very simple. You might repeat this every day as the new week unfolds before us: in order to be big, you have to learn to become small.