Looking at the gospel reading out of tomorrow’s Lectionary, we see something of Jesus’ priorities according to Mark – children and people not generally regarded as the ‘greatest’. Earlier, he predicts the death of ‘the Son of Man’ – by which we understand ‘Jesus himself’. What the disciples understood by this at the time we do not know. Whatever they understood, they were unsettled by this talk of betrayal and death – as I continue to be unsettled by the violent times in which Jesus lived. He was able to be who he was even in such circumstances. We his followers are still often scared. May God give us courage.