"We must be silent before we can listen. We must listen before we can learn. We must learn before we can prepare. We must prepare before we can serve. We must serve before we can lead."

I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.— Dr. Albert Schweitzer: (1875 – 1965: was a writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician.)

Gospel Text: (MK 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.
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.”

Our Gospel passage today helps us see what this process of spiritual conformity asks from us. We need to conform ourselves to the image of the Cross, because this image consists of being “the last of all and the servant of all.” This image consists of receiving a child in Christ’s Name, so to receive Christ Himself, so to receive the One who sent Christ. To receive this One—God the Father—is to allow God the Father to strengthen His likeness within us by means of His daily bread.