[Salvation]

Christian Service is Christ’s Service

• Homily of the Day
• September 23rd, 2012
• Food For Thought

Sunday, September 23, 2012  by Food for Thought

FirstReading:Wis2:12, 17-20
Psalm: 54:3-4, 5, 6 And 8
SecondReading: Jas 3:16-4:3
Gospel: Mk 9:30-37

In today’s Gospel, the teaching of Jesus gives us a truer view of reality. The event took place on the way to Capernaum. The Apostles were heatedly arguing as to who was the greatest, the most important.

Recall too, when James and John requested Jesus that they be placed in the positions of honor, one to the left and the other to the right of Jesus in the kingdom. The others were angered at the request. And Jesus admonished them, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones made 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 the 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.” (Matthew 20:25-28)

Today’s liturgy reminds us of what Christian leadership means, and our call to service.

Our Guide and Model is Jesus. He not only comes as one who serves, but he was seen as the Suffering Servant of Yahweh of whom Isaiah the prophet speaks: “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.”

And St. Paulwrites to the Christians in Philippi: “… Though he was in the form of God, [He] did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, He humbledhimself, becoming obedient to death, Even death on a cross.”

What did service mean for this servant?  Obedience…humiliation…death.

How does the servant Jesus touch our service? Intimately. For a disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.  Christian service is Christ’s service.

And so it involves in the first place – obedience. In essence, to be obedient means to be open. Open to what God might ask of you, might ask of you now – a God who calls in unexpected ways, to unexpected service.  The God, who calls countless Saints to heroic service, the God, who
calls millions of nameless Christians to lose their life in order to save it, to give their lives as a ransom, a redemption for many. This unpredictable God even calls some strange characters to become Jesuits.

You will hardly be a servant of Christ if you are not open, if your tomorrows are so programmed that there is no room for the unexpected.  No, to be Christ’s servant is to be as he was: “Not my will but thine be done.” Only in this way will you be open to the men and women who need the gifts God has given you, need your hands or your heart, your wisdom or your strength, your love and your compassion.

Second, humiliation. The primary way Christ humbled himself was in emptying himself. He put off his right to be God, and put himself in our condition, became like us. So, don’t wait for others to humiliate you. Christian life is a constant self-emptying, a putting off of yesterday, to join the human race of today. Like Jesus you must be increasingly aware of your solidarity with every man and every woman.  In this way only can you be the servant of all.

Third, death. Not just the dying at the end of our earthly existence.  Here we mean the daily dying to yourself that you cannot escape in Christian living. It is the dying that comes from openness to God and self-emptying. To die to yourself is to live to God and to others.

Let’s conclude by listening prayerfully to the words of a great Christian of modern times, Albert Schweitzer, who turned his back on the concert halls of Europe to become a missionary doctor to the poor inAfrica. Schweitzer said:

“I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know; the only ones among you who will really be happy are those who sought and found how to serve.”

[Salvation]

This Sunday’s Gospel: On Envy

• Faith
• September 21st, 2012
• Marcellino D'Ambrosio, Ph.D.

Recently a prominent CEO told a mixed group of business leaders that, regardless of their religion, they simply had to read the Bible.  Why?  Because success in business depends not so much upon understanding financial reports as it does upon understanding people.  And when it comes to a book that reveals what makes people tick, there is none better than the Bible.

Perhaps Christians ought to pay heed to this businessman.  We often get our ideas about people more from our own wishful thinking than God’s inspired word.  We expect that people will applaud and honor us when we live upright lives that are honorable, chaste, and charitable.  We are shocked when they do the opposite.

Jesus wasn’t.  He had read this Sunday’s first reading from the book of Wisdom long before he began his public ministry.  He knew that the miracles that he performed to heal, feed, and deliver the poor, sick and downtrodden, the words he spoke which captivated them and gave them hope – all this might very well be perceived to be a blessing by many.  But he knew that to some, it would be perceived as a threat.

For what the people so abundantly received from Jesus served to remind everyone of just how little they had received from their religious leaders.  Both Wisdom and James describe the inner dynamic at work in the hearts of such people.  When good people come across someone more virtuous, they are grateful.  For they are reminded of what they can become, and it encourages them to pursue excellence.  They rejoice when the virtuous person is honored, and in fact lead the applause.  When wicked people come across someone more virtuous, they are furious.  Because such people serve as proof that the wicked could be different.  The virtuous person takes away their excuses and exposes their mediocrity, so they resent his success   Rather than emulate the hero and strive to accomplish similar things, they instead seek to destroy him and discredit his work thereby removing the embarrassing threat to their self-respect and their image.

This goes beyond what we customarily mean by the term jealousy, for it is not simply wishing to possess a good thing enjoyed by another.  Rather this sort of jealousy concludes, either through laziness or despair, that the good that it desires is impossible to attain, and so aims to obliterate it and the person possessing it.  It is the capital sin of envy, and often employs ingenious strategies to bring down its nemesis.

Jesus understood all this.  So amidst all the euphoria aroused by Jesus’ sensational ministry, he predicts that he will be tortured to death at the instigation of the “spiritual” leaders of his own people?

But Wisdom incarnate had a plan much wiser than the clever schemes of his cunning opponents.  Yes, they had it all worked out–he’d come to Jerusalem for the feast, as would the Roman procurator, the only one who could approve his execution.  They’d recruit a snitch from his inner circle.  They’d rig a kangaroo court, mustering the Sanhedrin in the middle of the night.  They’d manipulate Pilate with fear of losing the emperor’s favor.

But the worldly wisdom of envy was no match for the heavenly wisdom of Love.  All their maneuvering only served to advance the purposes of his own glorious plan of salvation.  The elaborate machinations of evil men played right into his hands, setting Him up to win the eternal forgiveness of those who plotted against him.

For Love, as St. Paul says in Romans 8, has the power to make everything work out to the good.  And that is the reason that the crucifix is the central image of the Catholic faith.  It is a symbol of faith, hope, and love.  Yes, it demonstrates how much he loves us.  But it also demonstrates that we have nothing to fear from the tragedies and calamities that have happened or could happen.  For if he can bring glory out of the shame of the cross, he can bring good out of anything.

 

Dr. Marcellino D’Ambrosio writes from Texas.