JAMES 4:1-10

Beloved: Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from? Is it not from your passions that make war within your members? You covet but do not possess. You kill and envy but you cannot obtain; you fight and wage war. You do not possess because you do not ask. You ask but do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. Adulterers! Do you not know that to be a lover of the world means enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wants to be a lover of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose that the Scripture speaks without meaning when it says, The spirit that he has made to dwell in us tends toward jealousy? But he bestows a greater grace; therefore, it says: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. So submit yourselves to God. Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you of two minds. Begin to lament, to mourn, to weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.

MARK 9:30-37

Jesus and his disciples left from there and began a journey through Galilee, but he did not wish anyone to know about it. He was teaching his disciples and telling them, "The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise." But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to question him. They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house, he began to ask them, "What were you arguing about on the way?" But they remained silent. For they had been discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest. Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, "If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all." Taking a child, he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it, he said to them, "Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me."

The disciples can be seen as typical human beings. Ambition had taken hold of them. On their way to Capernaum, they had been arguing about who was the most important. Each one wanted to be at the top because they thought that Jesus was going to establish a worldly kingdom in which they would be bathed in luxuries as were the Romans occupying their land.

Jesus had just warned them that he himself would he put to death but the message had not sunk into their minds and hearts. Then Jesus tried to make the message explicit by saying: “If anyone wishes to rank first, he must remain the last one of all and the servant of all.” Next he exemplified his lesson by embracing a little child, an action that made an impression on his disciples.

A child in that era was a person who had no rights. A child was someone to be seen and not heard. To welcome a child in this context meant to become his equal, to be like him in humility and simplicity.

Christianity is a new set of values. The simplicity rather than elegance is that which transforms itself into the body of Christ. Humility, rather than pride, is the way to find favor with God. And death to sin, rather than a clutching to selfishness, is the way to eternal life.

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Finally, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our prayers and for those who need our prayers the most.

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