“Deliver, kill, resurrect”: these are three incomprehensible verbs for the disciple who seeks a completely different face of Jesus. The disciple does not understand, yet he is afraid to ask. This reaction is truly paradoxical. Who does not understand, he asks. The disciple does not dare to do so, perhaps because he is afraid of the answer: or rather, he is afraid to confront himself with the word of Jesus. He prefers to hide behind his many words, which indicate easier paths, more gratifying ways: “On the road, in fact they had argued among themselves who was greater. ” Here emerge from their hearts those misleading passions which, James admonishes, are opposed to verse wisdom. However, Jesus does not stifle the disciple’s desire, he directs him in another direction. He shows him another way to make it happen. That of humility, smallness, of service, of course, but also that of hospitality. He takes a child and places it in the middle: “Whoever welcomes only one of these children in my name, welcomes … the one who sent me”. This gesture of Jesus, full of compassion and tenderness, frees the disciple from the temptation of power. In fact, he too can be seduced by the claim that he must always be the one who gives or does something for others. Instead, he must discover that at the center there is not what he can do or not do, there is rather the other as a person to be welcomed.

Commentary by Comunità di Dumenza

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves, Prinknash Abbey