September 23 // 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Reading I: Wisdom 2:12, 17-20
Responsorial Psalm 54:3-4, 5, 6, 8
Reading II: James 3:16-4:3
Gospel: Mark 9:30-37

Imagine you were one of Jesus’ followers back when he walked the paths of Galilee and you heard Jesus say he is about to be killed. I asked that question of a group of young adults and they responded, “Oh no!” “Why? How? We’ve got to stop this.” “It’s all too much even for YOU? Is that it? You’re through with humanity, through with the mess humans have made of the world, through with priests abusing children, through with bishops and cardinals covering up crimes! Through with children being taken from their parents at the border, through with their parents being jailed instead of being processed and vetted as asylum seekers!”

Then I asked them what they’d talk about after Jesus’ incredible pronouncement? Not one of them sounded like Jesus’ disciples who today’s gospel says wanted places of honor. Today’s young adults said, “What can we do to protect him?”

Unlike Jesus’ first follower’s self-interest, not one of our young people spoke of their own status, position or place. They even talked about children as does today’s Gospel: Jesus says, “Whoever welcomes one .. child in my name welcomes me.”

What do the young people in your life say about children’s suffering? Those I have heard want change. Thirty-one men and women ranging in age from 18 to 27 summarized: when the Pope meets with bishops in February, women, ethicists, moral theologians, trauma experts, survivors of abuse, parents and grandparents must be integral to on-going decision making. And the children incarcerated at the border need counsel, loving care, advocacy and quick reuniting with their parents who also need care after their escape from violence in El Salvador, or Honduras or Mexico. El Paso is a low crime city, a peaceful place; I wish everyone would quit judging those escaping violence and hunger. We are a nation of immigrants; current immigration laws began in 1920 and were often waived at harvest time to keep the prices low for the food we eat. Now some crops rot in the fields because ICE clamps down as Jesus weeps, “Whoever welcomes one child in my name welcomes me.”