“And he took a child, and set him in the midst of them: and when he had taken him in his arms, he said unto them,”
He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them — the child placed in the midst of the twelve is the object lesson for the greatness teaching. The child in first-century Mediterranean culture was not sentimentalized as in modern culture — children were dependents, low in social status, without power, property, or civic standing. The child represents the socially powerless, the ones who cannot confer status or advancement on those who serve them.
Church Fathers on Mark 9:36
It is after miracles that the Lord inserts a discourse concerning His Passion, lest it should be thought that He suffered because He could not help it.
He always mingles together sorrowful and joyful things, that sorrow should not by its suddenness frighten the Apostles, but be borne by them with prepared minds.
Capernaum means the city of consolation, and agrees with the former sentence, which He had spoken: 'And after that He is killed, He shall arise the third day.'
Read all 11 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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