Today the Gospel brings us two teachings from Jesus, which are closely linked to one another. On the one hand, the Lord announces to them that “they will kill him, and three days after his death he will rise” (Mk 9:31). This is the Father’s will for him: this is why he came into the world; this is how he wants to free us from the slavery of sin and eternal death; in this way Jesus will make us children of God. The Lord's surrender to the point of giving his life for us shows the infinity of God's Love: a Love without measure, a Love that does not mind lowering itself to the madness and scandal of the Cross.

It is terrifying to hear the reaction of the Apostles, still too busy contemplating themselves and forgetting to learn from the Master: “They did not understand the saying” (Mk 9:32), because along the way they were discussing who among them was the greatest, and, just in case they were to receive, they did not dare to ask him any questions.

With delicate patience, Jesus adds: we must become the last and servant of all. We must welcome the simple and small, because the Lord has wanted to identify himself with them. We must welcome Jesus into our lives because in this way we are opening the doors to God himself. It is like a life program to follow.

This is how the Cure of Ars, Saint John Vianney, explains it clearly: “Whenever we are able to renounce our own will to do the will of others, as long as it does not go against God's law, we obtain great merits, which only God knows.” Jesus teaches with his words, but above all he teaches with his deeds. Those Apostles, at first slow to understand, after the Cross and the Resurrection, will follow in the same footsteps of their Lord and their God. And, accompanied by the Blessed Virgin Mary, they will become increasingly smaller so that Jesus may grow in them and in the world.