22 September 2024 Mark 9:30-37

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Please read the passage before the homily.

Jesus said to his disciples, “People are going to kill me you are arguing about my inheritance!  I have no riches, no cars, no villas, no houses, no jewelry.  I did not come to make myself rich. I came to give my life as a ransom for all.”

In the days when children were to be seen and not heard, when children were supposed to be nothings, Jesus took a child and hugged the child saying,” The one who receives in my name a child like this receives me.”  This is Jesús’ inheritance for his disciples, they inherit the nothings of society and have to become nothings themselves.

Creation is an example of discipleship.  Creation means to make something out of nothing.  God created the whole universe out of nothing.  The whole of creation became a disciple of Jesús because it allowed God to create it out of nothing.  We likewise have to allow God to re-create us out of our nothingness to being children of God, the body of Christ, and Christ himself.  “If we do not change and become like the children, we will not enter the kingdom of God.”

Only the nothings can become something.  The world thinks the opposite, that somebodies can be somebodies.  The rich and the powerful think of themselves as something because of their riches and power.  In truth, they are living a lie.  It is the nothings of the world that allow God to make of them whatever God wants.

The nothings become the somethings.  The last shall be first.  Jesus, the first became the last to make all the rest firsts.  When we allow ourselves to be last, like the child, we can become first.  The Son of Man had to die, like the last one in order to rise as the firstborn of the living.

A seed, like a nothing, is planted in the ground: it rises in its new splendor.  Jesus was planted himself; he rose from the dead and is seated at the right hand of the Father in all his glory.  We likewise, like Jesus, planted like nothings, are being re-created in a new birth as children of God and the body of Christ.