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<p style="margin:0px;font-family:roboto,"helvetica neue",helvetica,arial,sans-serif;line-height:27px;color:rgb(51,51,51)"><font size="2">Friends,
in today’s Gospel, <b><span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)">Jesus presents a child as the model for his
disciples who want to be the most important. Jesus lays out for his
disciples what is going to happen to him in Jerusalem, how he will be
rejected, tortured, and killed. Oblivious to this, the disciples are
discussing who among them is the most important. </span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">For Jesus, the path to
greatness lies o</span><span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">n</span> </span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">the road to Calvary,</span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"> to self-forgetting love; </span><span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)">for the
disciples—and for most people of most ages—it lies along the road to<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"> ego
inflation</span></span></b>. </font></p>
<p style="margin:0px;font-family:roboto,"helvetica neue",helvetica,arial,sans-serif;line-height:27px;color:rgb(51,51,51)"><font size="2"></font></p>
<p style="margin:0px;font-family:roboto,"helvetica neue",helvetica,arial,sans-serif;line-height:27px;color:rgb(51,51,51)"><font size="2"><b><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">What
is the antidote? A child is proposed as a kind of living icon to these
ambitious Apostles</span></b>. We notice first how Jesus physically identifies with
the child, sitting down at his level and placing his arms around him.
It is as though he is saying that he himself is like a child. How so?
<b><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">Children don’t know how <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">to dissemble, how to be one way and act another.</span>
They are what they are; they act in accordance with their deepest
nature. </span></b></font></p>
<font size="2"></font><p style="margin:0px;font-family:roboto,"helvetica neue",helvetica,arial,sans-serif;line-height:27px;color:rgb(51,51,51)"><font size="2"><b><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">Why
was this story of Jesus’ identification with children preserved by all
of <span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)">the synoptic Gospels</span>? Somehow it gets close to the heart of Jesus’
life and message.</span></b></font></p><p style="margin:0px;font-family:roboto,"helvetica neue",helvetica,arial,sans-serif;line-height:27px;color:rgb(51,51,51)">
<i><font size="2"><span><b><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)">Mi <u>Atyánk</u>,
aki a mennyekben vagy, szenteltessék meg a Te neved, jöjjön el a Te
országod, legyen meg a Te akaratod, amint a mennyben, úgy a földön is.
Mindennapi kenyerünket add meg nekünk ma és bocsásd meg a mi vétkeinket,
miképpen mi is megbocsátunk az ellenünk vétkezőknek, és ne vígy minket a
kísértésbe, de szabadíts meg a gonosztól. Mert Tiéd az ország, a hatalom és a dicsőség most és mindörökké. Ámen. </span></b></span></font></i>
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