The Apostles display the fact that they didn’t get it. Christ had just told them about His coming Passion and yet they are caught up worrying about which one of them was the greatest. We too have heard the Good News of the Gospel message and have heard of our Lord’s Passion and yet we so often forget about these words in order to pursue worldliness. Just like the Apostles we too often don’t get it.
Part of the issue for the Apostles is that they haven’t yet fully come to understand the Kingdom that Christ came to establish. Their mind was often caught up in the world below, but in all actuality Christ came to establish a Kingdom far different from a worldly one. As our Gospel instructs: “But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to ask him.”
We too are often afraid to fully turn our attention towards the Lord. We know that the Passion and cross of our Lord requires sacrifice and yet who here actually wants to practice sacrifice? It was only last week that we were instructed: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” These words looks great on paper, but they are so difficult to put into practice.
If we are to strive for this Kingdom that Christ establishes then we must become convinced that there is nothing which is more important. If we cannot become convinced of this reality none of us would ever feel compelled to embrace the cross of our Blessed Lord. There is nothing which will be greater then the Kingdom of Heaven for in the Kingdom of Heaven we will be held in communion with God always. In the Kingdom of Heaven there will no longer be sickness nor death for the original relationship with God will be restored.
It is easy to hold to a concept of Heaven which requires nothing on our behalf. In our Gospel Christ shows that this is not the case for He takes a child and places it in their midst and says: “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.” In this statement He is teaching us that we must be found humble of heart and in return be accepting of all that Christ hands on to us. Christ hands on a lot to us through the teaching authority of the Church.
At times these teachings come easily for us to practice and at other times they become very difficult to accept. Despite something which may be difficult we don’t want to say that I know better then the teaching authority of the Church because in doing so we fail to be humble, we fail in being obedient to Christ, and we end up disowning the cross.
