Our contemporary culture is rife with advice on getting ahead (whatever that means), being more effective, possessing influence, and even leaving a legacy. Frequently its goal is securing a pre-eminent position compared to others and frequently involves self-aggrandizement, learning to play the power game, and in extreme cases adopting a highly cynical pragmatism where only one person matters (care to guess who?). Even otherwise altruistic behaviour has a self-serving basis...the good of the many directly affects the good of the one.
In today's Gospel reading for Mass (which can be found here) Jesus had just spent a considerable amount of time prepping His disciples concerning the big event, where He selflessly pours Himself out as a sacrifice for not His sake but for the sake of His bereft and decaying Creation. Imagine burning the cycles to instill this teaching only to find out that the disciples had totally missed the point and were jockeying for position.
One can imagine the aggravation.
So instead of telling them about His sacrifice and the example it should serve, Jesus opts for the direct approach, telling them that the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven don't even seek the spot and serve everyone, including the lowly whom no one would otherwise give the time of day. To drive His point home, Jesus points out a child in the entourage (day care not being a thing back then, His followers would likely have brought their little ones along). Children in that day and age were of little consideration. They were a future investment, but that got them no special treatment. One did not serve a child, in fact, children were expected to provide service once they were capable. So to expect His disciples to "receive", that is, to provide hospitality and care and worth even to children, as the equivalent of providing the same thing to their Lord and Master, Jesus in effect tells the disciples to get over themselves and become the servants of everyone, including children.
That is radical, and it was unheard of, and counter to expectations then AND now. The end goal is not some self-aggrandizing grasp of power and influence either. As Jesus put it, the end goal is not to become the greatest in the Kingdom of God, but to receive Him, and is so doing to receive the Father. For in the end, it is reunion with God that matters and nothing else.
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