The two incidents in today's Gospel, the discussion which arose among the disciples and John possessiveness, are very clear indications of how much formation they all needed. All of the Gospels let us see how much patience and energy Jesus had to expend in getting them to understand the new value system and world-view which he intended by speaking about the Kingdom of God. In responding to the first incident, Jesus did not engage in verbal teaching, for example a lengthy parable. He performed what we call "a parable in action": he placed a little child in the midst of the disciples and then, in case they missed the point, which it seems they were often quite likely to do, he presented a simple principle for understanding his presence in the world and its significance for their relationship with the Father. As the second incident indicates, even John, who at least later on was "the disciple whom Jesus loved", was not immune from seeing things in a merely human way.

Unfortunately, we are still those disciples, still in need of firmer and clearer teaching so that we can with really open minds and hearts assimilate the Gospel spirit and be other Christs for our own salvation and for the salvation of the world.