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If I were to stop you and ask you to
describe a successful person, I dare say most of you would think in
terms of income. Success for most of us means income and wealth, and
financial prosperity means success in our society. Nine out of ten
people would say that success in life has something to do with making
money; that is the popular thinking of the world.
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But today we are in Church where a different
set of values supposedly prevails. This is the time and place for us to
reconsider the concept of success. Let’s face it, no one wants to fail,
all of us want to succeed. Most of us would agree that the greatest
expert on life is Jesus. That was His specialty, He knew how to live. In
just a few short years He built a life that made a lasting impact upon
the world. What did success mean to Him?
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Our Gospel reading tells about a day when he
talked to His disciples on this all-important subject. They were as
confused about it as we are. Their goal in life was to gain prominence
and prestige, every one of them aspired to that position. Jesus
overheard that argument and told them how to settle it. He said if
anyone wishes to rank first, he must be the last of all and servant to
all.
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It was a startling statement, first for what
it does not say. Notice that Jesus makes no mentions of money or power.
Apparently He did not consider it relevant to the discussion. To Jesus
money and power had nothing to do with success. When he turned water
into wine He didn’t open a liquor store. When He multiplied loaves and
fishes He didn’t establish a Walmart. Prestige, prominence: none of that
matters to Jesus.
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According to Jesus Christ, the only thing
that matters, the only thing that counts, is service. If anyone wishes
to rank first he must become the servant of all. That, my friends, is
probably the most revolutionary thing Jesus ever said. It just does not
make sense. How could you believe in today’s world that a mere servant
is the most important person in the world? It is hard to believe, but I
ask you to take time, look back at history and name for yourself the
great people, the people who were truly great. The people who really
made a difference.
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You would not name the dictators who ruled
with an iron fist, the Hitlers, the Stalins. Who would come to mind as
being truly great at making a difference? Most of us would name people
like Dr. Martin Luther King, Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela, Gandhi,
Pope John Paul XXIII, and St. Francis. These and many like them were
people who served the human race, or some small part of it. They were
truly servants of all.
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Look at your own life. Who have been the
most important people to you? They were probably not rich or famous, and
even if they were both, those were not the things that mattered. I
cannot tell you the names of the truly important people in your life,
but I can tell you what they did: they took care of you when you could
not care for yourself; they taught you to read and to write; they told
you about God and His goodness; they spent time with you when you were
lonely; they stood by you when you needed it.
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The most important people in your life have
been those who helped you. In a word, they were your servants. This
strange concept of Jesus’ is not so strange after all. It really is
true: the meaning of success in the eyes of God is service. Service to
big people, little people, rich and poor, clean and dirty: people of all
races and backgrounds. Two thousand years after Christ, and many people
still have not gotten the message that prejudice is always wrong.
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Perhaps children can lead us. I am thinking
of a little African-American girl called Ruby Bridges. She was six.
Think of your own child. Each day during the 60s she was picked up at
home and escorted by federal marshals between lines of people jamming
the approach to school. They yelled at the children. They yelled things
like, “You are less than human. An animal. You do not deserve to live.”
All the time Ruby was walking past her lips were moving. When asked by a
concerned teacher about what she was trying to say to these people who
were yelling at her, Ruby said, “Oh, I was not speaking to them. I was
speaking to God. I was praying.” “Were you praying for yourself?” the
teacher asked. “No, I was praying for them. I figured that is what God
would want me to do,” Ruby answered.
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These strange people came into Ruby’s life
and offered her a moment of grace, which she saw and took. Someone had
prepared the way, and told her of God and Jesus. But perhaps only a
child still close to innocence, close to God, could act this way. I like
to think that if Christ had been outside that school He would have
turned to that crowd and said unless you become like Ruby Bridges, you
will not enter the kingdom of God.
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| Yours in Christ, |
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| Fr. Bob Warren, SA |
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