A sermon on Mark 9:30-37

By Fr. Mike Paraniuk
St. Mary Catholic Church
St. Benignus Catholic Church 
St. Mary Queen of Heaven
and Holy Trinity Catholic Church

Have you ever joked around with a friend on the cell phone by pretending the reception is bad and you can't hear him? When the Pittsburgh Steelers win, I call my friend Bob who can't stand the Steelers. During my celebratory phone call, Bob will make crackling sounds as if the signal is disconnecting, pretending he can't hear me – though I know he can hear me perfectly fine. 

We reverse roles when the Bengals win. Bob is still waiting for that this season.

We hear Jesus say in Mark 9:31, “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.” 

A normal response would be, "I don't want anyone to hurt you" or "Why do you have to die" or "How can you come back in three days?" Instead, there was a complete disconnect. It's obvious the Apostles didn't want to understand. Using the phone analogy, "You’re breaking up, Jesus. Hello? Hello? Jesus, I can't understand you.”

Why were the Apostles afraid to ask? They feared Jesus will demand they die, too. One of the main teachings of Jesus is this: "Stop living for yourself." 

God said in the Bible, "He (Jesus) died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves." (2 Corinthians 5:15.)

Jesus teaches his followers that we must prepare for Heaven by converting from self-centered to other-centered. At Children's Hospital, I saw how we are born completely self-centered. Look what happens when a baby cries. A crying baby gets the bottle, a crying baby gets a diaper change, a crying baby gets held, a crying baby gets love. In a baby's world, they are the only ones that exist. The universe revolves only around them.

As they grow, they discover there are other people in the world, too. They are not the only one. That is the beginning of other-centered. I witnessed the greatest example of this when two kids found a bag of Chips Ahoy cookies. There was only one cookie left in the bag. The one kid took it out of the bag and simply handed it over to the other. That kid broke it in half so both could eat it.

I do my best to overcome any self-centered behavior. I do this by putting myself in someone's else's shoes, to understand what they must be feeling. We call this empathy. One of the biggest faults of a pastor is the need to be in charge of everything. Putting someone else in charge has opened me to see the giftedness of others. I find joy in celebrating the success of others and praise them for their accomplishments. I challenge myself to say "thank you" and "I am grateful for what you do" more often.

I try never to dominate a conversation by talking about myself. It drives me up a wall when I share a feeling to someone who responds by ignoring what I just said as they talk about their own feeling. For example, I shared a feeling of loss to someone when my mother died in 2021. Instead of affirming the pain of my loss, he responded by talking on and on about how he felt when his mother died. I did not receive any comfort from him. 

The Apostles did that to Jesus. Instead of validating Jesus when He talked about His death, they talked about themselves. Jesus makes this profound statement of His suffering and death and the Apostles respond by saying, "Yeah, whatever. Did you notice how great we are?" Jesus showed them what greatness looks like when He brought a child into their midst. In Aramaic, the word for child and servant is the same.

Life is a journey from selfishness to selflessness. God says in Philippians 2:3, "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves." This is how you prepare for eternal life in God's Kingdom.

If you sincerely want to practice selflessness, get a cat. You will never live for yourself again. (My cat Buffy is trying to help me write this sermon by sitting on the keyboard. Meow.)