Being the Least!

Monday, September 30, 2024

Jb 1:6-22; Lk 9:46-50

Today’s Gospel highlights the misunderstanding regarding discipleship and offers a corrective. 

Why does Jesus present a child as representing him when his disciples were discussing among themselves who the greatest was? 

There are two details to understand Jesus’ response. 

At first, the disciples were engrossed in the conversation about who the greatest among them was. The seriousness with which they treated the subject is highlighted by the word ‘arguing.’ The incident happens just as Jesus is looking to commence his journey toward Jerusalem to suffer and die. Finding that his disciples do not really understand the meaning of what entails following him, Jesus puts forward the child as representing him. 

Secondly, the passage reads that Jesus realized the intention of their hearts, took a child, and made it his representative. In doing this, Jesus matches their seriousness with his deliberate response to turn the symbol of the least into a sign of the greatest. Through his gesture, Jesus teaches that greatness comes from being the least. Hence, the child becomes the corrective to respond to the aspirations of his disciples to be the greatest. 

If being the least is synonymous with being the greatest, then that is the lesson we need to acquire. 

Jesus is the greatest because he became the least for our sake.

Let us pray for the grace to arm ourselves with the right understanding that Christian vocation consists in being the least. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar