19th Week in Ord. Time, Tuesday – 11th August 2020 — Gospel: Mt 18,1-5.10.12-14
Reframing greatness
Jesus’ discourse begins with the disciple’s question about who is the greatest in the kingdom. Jesus does not evoke a military conqueror, successful king, or ruling emperor as the model of greatness. Instead he turns to the margins, to the visual aid of a child. In the ancient world, children did not signify purity and innocence, as we often categorize them now. They occupied least position in the social status. Parents cared for them, protected them and valued them for their future economic contributions as workers and providers of care and support for elderly parents. Yet children were also vulnerable and insignificant. Without position, they were powerless and unpredictable. They were excluded from, dependent on, and unsafe with the powerful male dominant world. But they were not the center of the world. Jesus’ use of the image of the child as a response to his followers’ question brings the periphery to centre, renders the insignificant significant, and empowers the powerless. His example points out the radical twist for greatness. Being like a child requires Jesus-followers to be mingling in the society. They are to welcome precisely children. They must do away with cultural commitments to greatness such as domination, superiority, and advantage. The disciples have to change, they have to become like children in their heart attitudes. As children they are to embrace a downward path of alternative greatness, which is marked by a lowly social location and humble social interaction.
