Breaking Conventions!

Tuesday, May 21, 2024

Jas 4:1-10; Mk 9:30-37

Today’s Gospel is a clear example of inability leading to contradiction. 

Jesus is talking about his passion and death. However, the disciples do not comprehend the gravity of Jesus’ statement. The fact that they are afraid of getting it clarified does not prevent them from engaging in a discussion about who was the greatest among them. 

This shows how the disciples were at variance with the Lord’s vision initially. 

Their silence to the Lord’s question betrays the fact that they were not aligned with his expectations. 

Now Jesus teaches something that will never align with their conventional understanding. 

Jesus makes a child the yardstick for accepting or rejecting him. 

Though the inability of the disciples to comprehend Jesus’ statements leads to contradicting perspectives, by showing a child as his representative, Jesus puts forward such convention-breaking discipline as a mark of real discipleship. 

The way of the world contradicts the way of the Lord. 

Jesus is the greatest not because he held on to his identity as the Son of God but because he willingly died on the cross to save humanity. 

Breaking conventions is not vainglorious if it helps us follow the Lord faithfully.  

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar