The discipleship way of life is clear

September 24, 2006 -- 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Fr. Michael Stubbs

	Fr. Mike Stubbs

The English word "boy" originally meant "a male servant." This meaning survived during the days of slavery in the United States through the use of that word as a term of address for summoning and giving orders to slaves. That explains the still somewhat pejorative connotation of the word "boy." It's not just a "young male human being." It can sound like an insult. Compare the now outmoded French custom of calling the waiter, "garçon," literally "boy." That custom has been abandoned for similar reasons.

In like manner, the Greek word translated as "child" in Sunday's gospel reading, Mark 9:30-37, has the secondary meaning of "slave boy." More than a thousand years separated the ancient Mediterranean world from pre-Civil War America, and yet the two cultures shared that link between childhood and servitude. The linguistic evidence suggests that children were treated as servants, that society placed the two on the same level. Both children and servants were considered a step below adults.

This insight should enrich our reading of Mark 9:30-37. When Jesus provides the Twelve with a teaching on the meaning of discipleship, he refers to both of those marginalized groups: "If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all. ... Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me."

It is significant that this teaching on discipleship follows Jesus' second prediction of the Passion. That is the sequence that Mark's gospel observes with all three Passion predictions. Each one is followed by a teaching on discipleship.

Jesus is linking his own suffering, death and resurrection to the way the disciples live. As they adhere to his teachings, they will also begin to participate in his death and resurrection. They will put to death their worldly ambitions, their dreams of success, so that the Kingdom of God might grow in them. They will put to death the pride and arrogance within them, so that the humility of Christ might prevail. They will put to death all selfishness, so that generous love might flourish instead.

Jesus' teaching seeks to give the disciples a practical way to conform them to the pattern of Jesus' death and resurrection, a way for them to live. And how do they react to that lesson?

When Jesus makes the prediction about his Passion, the gospel records the disciples' response. "But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to question him." On the other hand, the gospel does not record a similar response on the part of the disciples to Jesus' teaching on discipleship. It is all too clear. The difficulty lies, not in understanding it, but rather, in living it out.

That holds true for us as well. Jesus' death and resurrection appears as a glorious mystery, beyond our comprehension, accessible only by faith. A suitable response is silence and awe. At the same time, when his death and resurrection are translated into a way of life for us to follow, we cannot miss the point. We cannot plead ignorance. It is all too clear.

(Fr. Stubbs, a priest of the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas, has a master's degree in theology from Harvard.)