Tag Archives: service

Want to be Great?

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    In this Wednesday’s Gospel (Mt 20: 17-18), our Lord makes His third prediction of His coming Passion and Resurrection.

    The sons of Zebedee and their mother seem to miss the gravity of what Jesus has said– the sacrifice and suffering that is to come in order that the Kingdom of God be established. They expect a kingdom of earthly power, and they would like positions of honor and influence in the royal palace– a throne up on the dais,  or perhaps a seat at the Cabinet table.

    The other ten disciples hear about this and complain: “Hey, what about us? “. They also think in terms of power and prestige. Our Lord corrects them:

    ” You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. “

    Day after day I come to realize more and more that membership in this Kingdom is about sacrifice, service, and humility. This is not a kingdom for lords or  “insiders ” ; it is a kingdom of serfs and outsiders.

  Some folks in our prayer group, which meets twice a week at the Passionist Monastery, tell me that I am ” leader “. When I find myself thinking that I actually am a leader, I start to stress about the meetings, lose my connection with God, get in a bad mood, and think of controlling others. When the Lord helps me realize that I am just another servant of the True Leader, when I let go and I am filled with humility and awe at the love and holiness of the suffering people in this group, it is only then that I begin to rejoice in the Grace that falls upon all of us as the prayer meeting takes on an organic life of its own  that makes the moment holy.

    When I lived in Florida, I belonged to a laymens’ group similar to Cursillo. Twice a year, under the auspices of the parish, more than fifty of us would put together a three day retreat of evangelization for men in search of God. The jobs of the coordinators, the organizers, the fund-raisers, and the presenters were vital to the retreats. But just as important were the jobs of  the cooks, table servers, furniture arrangers, and the clean-up crew.

    At one of the retreats there was a retreatant who had quit the priesthood and was looking for a way back to God. He was touched by the talks, the activities, and the witnesses that were humbly presented by us. But on the last day, when he was going to the bathroom, he ran into a young team member who was cleaning the toilets. As he worked, the smiling young man was singing religious songs with great abandonment and joy. The retreatant is once again a priest, and he attests that this encounter was the moment that sealed the deal for him. He felt the irresistible call of Jesus once again and his life was changed. This priest comes back every year to one of the retreats and serves in the clean-up crew.

    Richard Rohr quotes Catherine La Cugna :  ” God’s power comes through powerlessness and humility. The Christian God is much more properly called

all-vulnerable than almighty, which we should have suspected and intuited by the shocking metaphor ‘ Lamb of God ‘  found throughout the New Testament…..

If God is all-vulnerable, then perhaps God stands in solidarity with all pain and suffering in the Universe, allowing us to be participants in our own healing. This does not make sense to the logical mind but to the awakened soul it somehow does. “

Orlando M. Hernández

The Mother of James and John’s

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Mt 20:17-28

As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem,
he took the Twelve disciples aside by themselves,
and said to them on the way,
“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem,
and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests
and the scribes,
and they will condemn him to death,
and hand him over to the Gentiles
to be mocked and scourged and crucified,
and he will be raised on the third day.”

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee approached Jesus with her sons
and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something.
He said to her, “What do you wish?”
She answered him,
“Command that these two sons of mine sit,
one at your right and the other at your left, in your kingdom.”
Jesus said in reply,
“You do not know what you are asking.
Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?”
They said to him, “We can.”
He replied,
“My chalice you will indeed drink,
but to sit at my right and at my left,
this is not mine to give
but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”
When the ten heard this,
they became indignant at the two brothers.
But Jesus summoned them and said,
“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them,
and the great ones make their authority over them felt.
But it shall not be so among you.
Rather,Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve
and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

We usually think of Lent as a personal journey, a time to tune-up spiritually. But that’s not all it is. Lent is also a time for the church to be renewed.

“We” are going up to Jerusalem, Jesus tells his disciples, and announces his coming sufferings and death. His disciples follow him to the holy place where challenge and reward awaits, as Matthew’s gospel says. Through the ages, his church will be renewed by the graces of his paschal mystery in the world and time in which it lives.

The mother of James and John on that journey with her sons evidently saw the holy city as a place of opportunity for herself and them. “Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in your kingdom.” She’s looking for power and prestige.

Jesus reminds her that his followers are to serve and not be served. It’s a service that will cost them, not make them rich, for “the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

As a church of disciples, the church must serve the world in which it lives and its members must serve each other, but like the mother of James and John, it’s always beset by the temptation to look for and hold on to power and prestige. In Lent Jesus calls his church to humble service : “Whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.”

A cross stands atop our churches as a proclamation of belief in Jesus Christ. It’s also a promise to serve the world as Jesus did.