In today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus foretelling his death and resurrection for the second time in Mark. In the same way that Peter didn’t understand Jesus’ plan, the disciples don’t understand either what Jesus is saying. However, they didn’t ask any questions because they were afraid.

Why? Perhaps they didn’t want to be embarrassed or couldn’t acknowledge their limitations. The problem is that, instead of speaking up what they had in their minds, they ended up discussing futile things, arguing about who was the greatest. I wonder what would have happened if they had asked honest questions like, why did you have to die and endure all that suffering? What does it mean to rise again? I wonder what Jesus’ would have answered them. I wonder about the impact that His responses would have made in them.

Perhaps they would have understood that our call is to be like Jesus. This means to renounce to ourselves, to follow Him, and to carry our cross. Today, I would like to invite us all to reflect, are there any questions that I’m afraid to ask to Jesus? Perhaps questions about sorrows, injustice, your own painful situations, sickness of our loved ones, shattered dreams? I would like to encourage us to bring these questions to Jesus. We might not hear a clear answer but let’s take the opportunity to be taught by the Teacher, to become like little children, humble, trusting and willing to learn so we may continue growing deeper in our relationship with Him.