My son

It is not an uncommon "bit" in television commercials for health-related products for the ad to have people saying something like this:

"My doctor recommended it."

"My doctor said I should try it."

"My doctor gave it to me."

"My son told me to use it."

"Your son?" an off-camera voice asks in surprise. The woman then beams with pride.

"My son the doctor."

In today's Gospel (Mark 12:35-37), our Lord "messes with the heads" of the scribes:

"How do the scribes claim
that the Christ is the son of David?
David himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit, said:
The Lord said to my lord,
'Sit at my right hand
until I place your enemies under your feet.'
David himself calls him 'lord';
so how is he his son?"
The great crowd heard this with delight.

The ultimate answer to our Lord's rhetorical question, of course, lies in the mystery of the Incarnation and the hypostatic union. This mystery gives rise to a similar paradoxical statement in the Marian antiphon Alma Redemptoris Mater, which says to the mother of Jesus:

"To the wonderment of nature
you bore your Creator..."

(The wonder of it all is accented more dramatically in the original Latin, in which the word translated as "you bore" is genuisti" and the word translated as "Creator" is Genitorem.)

tu quae genuisti,
natura mirante,
tuum sanctum Genitorem

But this is more than just an opportunity to reflect upon the mystery of the Incarnation. It is also a reminder of how our children, students, or protégés can turn out to be greater than ourselves.

And that is the way it should be.

We need to keep this in mind when dealing with our children or with anyone who may be younger or less knowledgeable:
how glorious it can be
for them to be greater than we.