The text below is the transcription of the video commentary by Fr Fernando Armellini

A good Sunday to all.
Before getting married, people in love should reflect; they do not decide moved by the first
emotional impulse, they need to evaluate if they are made for each other if they cultivate the same
dreams, whether they have the same goals in mind. Only at the end, when they feel fully involved
in a single life project, they decide to declare their unconditional love for each other. If we want to
understand what it means to believe in Christ, we must refer to the image of falling in love because
it is the one used in the Bible.
In the Old Testament, God is presented as the bridegroom of Israel, and so, the first
commandment says, 'you shall not make other gods for I am a jealous God.' The one in love knows
that he is the only one who can make the one he loves happy, and he does not want any lovers to
ruin this relationship. Then, in the New Testament, this same image is taken up again, and it
accompanies the whole New Testament.
John's Gospel begins with a wedding feast and with the Baptist who says, ‘I am not the
bridegroom; the bridegroom is coming, I hear his voice, and I am happy.’ And we know how the
New Testament ends, with a wedding feast, as the seer of Revelation tells us in chapter 19, when
he says: "Rejoice, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife is ready, and then the angel
said to me: Write, happy are those who are invited to the wedding of the Lamb." This is the
conclusion of the whole history of the world.
Believing in Jesus does not mean to admire him for his life, for what he teaches; it means to
have fallen in love with him and to decide to unite one's life to his. This cannot happen before you
have acquired a deep knowledge of him, knowing exactly what is in his mind and what happens to
those who decide to join their life to his. Therefore, a time of mutual knowledge, a time of maturation of this relationship is necessary because otherwise there could be surprises later and
one could say 'I believed in Christ, but I was wrong; I expected from him what he did not give me.'

The three years of Jesus' public life represented this period of mutual acquaintance between
the apostles and Jesus. It was the time of commitment. Mark in his Gospel wants to make all of us
go through this spiritual journey of the disciples, so that we may come to understand who Jesus
really is before the wedding feast takes place when we decide to join our lives to his.
Last week we were with the disciples in Caesarea Philippi; let us remember that in that
enchanting place the Master had asked two questions to the disciples and the second one was very
provocative because he had asked the disciples and us too, 'to what extent do you feel involved in
my life?’ Are you willing or unwilling to bet your lives on me? And what do you expect from me?
The question is addressed to us; the disciples in Caesarea began to realize that things were not
going the right way because it was not what they expected from their wedding with the Master. I
believe that also for Jesus, it was a moment of intimate suffering, not of disappointment because it
was expected. What he proposed was too demanding. The proposal was this: ‘My life is like this, Do
you say Yes or No?
Jesus did not expect great things and was prepared for their hesitation, he expected it, but he
felt an intimate suffering; he felt the disappointment of the lover who after a year and a half realizes
that he has not yet been able to involve the disciples in his life. It is a time of crisis in love, and Jesus
wants to overcome this crisis.
Let's listen to what he does:
“They left from there and began a journey through Galilee, but he did not wish anyone to know
about it.”
At Caesarea Philippi, Peter had spoken in the name of all and had rebuked Jesus for what he
had said, and Jesus had called him Satan, and Peter must not have been pleased about it.
I believe that the two days' journey back to Capernaum were quite tense, marked by many
moments of silence, a fragile calm after the storm. When there is a serious misunderstanding
between two people in love, what do they do? How do they overcome it? One of the ways is to
pretend nothing happened, let some time go by, don't bring up the subject again, and wait that after
a few days everything will be as before. I think the disciples thought of this solution; to wait for Jesus
to meet again among the people, to resume preaching, and to do wonders and the
misunderstanding would have been a bad memory.
Jesus does not make this choice because it would be sweeping the dust under the rug. To
recover a relationship of two people who love each other, they need to meet again, by themselves
to confront each other, to understand each other, to readjust their thoughts and their hearts; it is
better to provoke a discussion, even a hard discussion, even to quarrel, but it is necessary to be able
to solve the problem. And this is what today's Gospel passage tells us that Jesus did.
He decided to stay alone with his disciples; he did not want anyone to know where they were;
he tried to resume the discussion that had provoked the crisis. Let us remember Peter's reaction
when Jesus told him: I will lay down my life. Peter could not accept joining his own life to his because,
according to everyone's common sense, one does not look for failure.
Let us listen now to how Jesus resumes with them the discourse:
"He was teaching his disciples and telling them, ‘The Son of Man is to be handed over to men
and they will kill him, and three days after his death he will rise.’ But they did not understand the
saying, and they were afraid to question him.”

In Caesarea Philippi, the disciples had understood very well what Jesus had said; he had been
very clear. Now Jesus resumes the discourse, not to explain himself better, but to provoke the
disciples, to open a debate with them and to bring to light the objections that they have in their
hearts, and it is necessary that this discussion between Jesus and the disciples we may feel it as
addressed to us.
Why did it cost so much to the disciples to accept Jesus' proposal and we, instead, say yes to
the Lord so easily? The effort they made to let themselves be involved must be ours because a
conversion is necessary, and this conversion is very painful; it requires the renunciation of ourselves
and our selfishness, and if we think that we can become disciples without this hard experience we
deceive ourselves. Jesus resumes the discourse saying that "the son of Man is to be handed over to
men."
Son of Man in Hebrew means a real man, one who is entirely man, the successful man; because
we know that one can be a rational animal but not a person. Those who commit injustice, violence,
abuses are not fully human. They can be masters in the handling of science and technology, but if
they build bombs, kill, commit injustice, we cannot say that they are human. Here Jesus presents
himself as the son of Man, as the successful man, and what does he foresee happening to this man?
He says he is about to be delivered to men. It does not say he will be delivered to the high
priests, to the scribes and Pharisees, no; he is delivered to all men and, who has delivered him? I
believe we all immediately think of Judas... no, Judas delivered him to the high priests. Here, on the
other hand, there is one who delivers him to men. In this case, biblical scholars speak of the 'divine
passive'; that is how the evangelist presents the work of the heavenly Father. It is He who gave his
only Son into the hands of men.
This is the most beautiful image of God. God is the one who puts himself in our hands. Love is
to put oneself in the hands of the other and to give oneself to the other. The other can ask me for
everything he needs for life, and the one who loves him puts himself in his hands. God has put
himself in our hands. It is the opposite of what we think about a successful person: it is the one who
has others in their hands. They can put their hands on many people and dispose of them as they want. No! These are not yet people; they are the ones who have power, but this power is the anti-love, the anti-human. And how will it end? What will the men do in the midst of whom the true manis found?

He is a lamb among wolves; there will be a conflict between the new man and the men who do
not want him because they want to perpetuate their world where the law is that of competition,
where one tries to prevail, to enslave the other, to dominate over the other. It is a world of wolves
that when this real man comes, who is a lamb, his fate is sealed. And the heavenly Father, when he
gave his Son into the hands of men, knew that he was giving him over to death. The only way to
usher in a new world is that of the genuine people—the lambs.
Jesus says it will not end like this. Once he is killed, after three days he will rise again. To the
wolves that killed him, it will seem like a victory because they got rid of him, he was a nuisance, he
had to be taken out of the way so that life would go on as before when to be men meant to be
wolves and among the wolves to be the strongest. Jesus assures us that it will not be death that
wins. Things will not end with death. What will win will be love. It is an illusion to think that death
will be conquered by living like wolves, attaining power, dominating, accumulating wealth, living for
oneself. Those who live like this live like wolves; they see how their lives go away, being swallowed
up, moment by moment, by death.
The only way to overcome death, Jesus tells the disciples, is what I will show it to you: to give it
out of love, as a lamb gives its life. If it has become love, death can no longer touch it. Every time
we silence the selfish impulse that leads us to think in ourselves and to despise others, when we
love, we defeat death. The disciples did not understand these words. The words that Jesus said were very clear, but they were too far away from Jesus’ way of thinking, from his criteria of judgment, from his hopes.

They were not yet ready to accept the proposal to be lambs. They do not risk accepting that to
overcome death they must surrender themselves. They were afraid to ask for explanations, but
Jesus wanted their objections to come out, and it is not surprising that after hearing the same
announcement a second time, the disciples could not accept Jesus' proposal and they do not open
their mouths; why? Because they cannot wait for the time for Jesus to change his speech; they want
to continue to cultivate their dreams. And, if we think about it, that's exactly what happens to us. If
during a sermon we hear somebody presenting the real Gospel, very provocative, that clashes with
our life choices, that provokes us and requires a conversion, we don't say that it is wrong but we
cannot wait until the sermon is over to talk about something else; not bad things, beautiful things,
but about something else, because that's very challenging. And they don't ask questions to Jesus.
He wanted them to ask him questions, but they are cautious not to.
We have to ask Jesus these questions; and to ask these questions to him, it is enough that we
ask them to the Gospel because the Gospel answers us. So, when we have these objections, let us
put them to the Gospel. I was mentioning that Jesus wanted them to ask him, but the disciples did
not speak with him, but they speak among themselves.
Let's hear what they were talking about:
“They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house, he began to ask them, ‘What were you
arguing about on the way?’ But they remained silent. They had been discussing among themselves
on the way who was the greatest. Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, ‘If anyone
wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.’ Taking a child he placed it in their
midst, and putting his arms around it he said to them, ‘Whoever receives one child such as this in
my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.’”
Jesus wanted the disciples to ask him questions, to raise objections, but they only wanted him
to change the subject. When they came home, it is he who asks them, "What were you arguing
about on the way?" On the way, they were arguing among themselves who was the greatest; they
keep silent, they do not answer because they know that in seeking the first places, the Master would
not let it pass. There are subjects that Jesus did not deal with directly, and on these, we can discuss
and even have divergent opinions, but on the subject of hierarchies, of ecclesiastical careers, of
honorary titles, of hand-kissing, of the obeisance, of genuflections... on this subject, Jesus was
absolutely clear. For us, the honorific titles are secondary things... the obeisance, but for Jesus, they
are not secondary at all because this touches the core of his proposal of the new man. It is the old
man who seeks these things; the new man is the one who comes down to the last place; he does
not expect obeisance; he is the one who bends down and kisses the feet of the poor. This impulse
to become great, to be important, to count for something, we all have it inside.
What to do? If we repress it, if we suffocate it, we will remain unsatisfied and frustrated; we
have to satisfy it, but it is a matter of knowing how and Jesus teaches us how to satisfy this need
that we have to be the first, to be great, to stand out, out of the flock, superior to others. It's about
knowing how to become great, how to be successful, how to be admired, but by whom... People’s
gaze is telling us: if you want to be admired by us, you have to go up high so that we all can see you,
but if you want to be admired by God you don't have to go up to the top; you have to go down to
the last place, and so Jesus is telling us now how to become great.
The evangelist Mark, who was not present and therefore is not chronicling, says that Jesus sat
down, and when he says this, he wants to tell us that we have to open our ears wide because he is
saying something very important. Jesus sits down because it is the rabbi who speaks and calls the 12 to himself... how come, why? What does it mean that he called them to himself? They were around him physically, but they were still far away; they still belonged to the old world. They were
old men, that is, they were still in the wolf world of competition, they had not yet approached the
Master.

What did Jesus do? He called them to himself and did not rebuke them; he understood their
condition, he knew that to assimilate his proposal takes time to be understood and to be accepted.
He says: Do you want to be the first? If you want to be the first, I will tell you how to do it. He doesn't
say it's wrong to want to be first; the drive that leads us to emerge must be satisfied. How? Paul
says 'love one another with brotherly affection and compete even in esteeming one another in
considering the other superior to yourselves; compete to choose the last place.' And Jesus says that
'if you want to be great, you must be the servant of all, you have to be the last of all.' Twice 'all' is
repeated.
The difficult thing is not so much to serve because we could choose; if we could choose whom
to serve, we would choose the nice people who show us gratitude... NO. Jesus says: last of all and
servant of all; it means to be servant even to the one who has done you some harm, even of your
enemy. There are services that we gladly give to pleasant persons, but Jesus says that if you want
to be truly great, you must consider everyone superior to you, everyone can give you orders when
they need your service.
And Jesus makes a gesture: he takes a child and puts him in the middle. The term used here by
the evangelist is παιδίον = paidíon, it indicates the individual who, by age, by the role he plays in
society, is the least important of all. The children didn't count for anything; it's not that they didn't
love the children, they loved them, but they didn't count for anything. If you want to be successful
and you want to move up the social ladder, don't waste your time with those who don't count, with
the poor, with the sick and the needy; if you make friends, you seek the favors of those who can
help you rise. Children, on the other hand, are the ones who only need help, attention and services.
And Jesus embraces the child.
The real man, the successful man, is the one who embraces those who do not count. And he
says: "Whoever welcomes these children in my name welcomes me." That is, 'welcomes the
proposal of man that I have made.'
I wish you all a good Sunday and a good week.