Author Topic: Forgive So We Can Live and Let Live (Read 1781359 times)

cassini · « **Reply #70 on:** September 18, 2024, 01:03:16 PM »

Fr Sean again.
Ambition: Good or Bad?

The word ‘ambition’ comes from Latin and was first used as a political term meaning a ‘going around’ or ‘striving for favour,’ soliciting votes for political office in Roman times. To be ambitious is to seek what we think will bring us some distinction, power, or fame that will make us stand out from the crowd or achieve something important to us. Is ambition good or bad? Who doesn’t want to be recognized, honoured, or achieve success? Who doesn’t want to be noticed, admired or favoured? Maybe introverts don’t like these things in public but they appreciate them in private. The fact is that every man, woman, and child is ambitious for what makes them happy. The problem isn’t ambition but what we’re ambitious for and what we do to attain it. The question is: Am I ambitious for the right or wrong things? When ambition is grounded in humility we’ll use it to serve others. When it’s laced with pride, arrogance or a superiority complex, we’ll use it to be served. This is what Jesus teaches us in the Gospel according to.

Jesus had just finished explaining to His Apostles (Mk 9:30-37) that betrayal, suffering, and death awaited Him as God’s Messiah. “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise” (Mk 9:31). St. Mark records that “they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to question Him” (9:32). Instead they fell to arguing among themselves about which of them would be the greatest. Personal ambition occupied their thoughts. Who would be the most powerful, admired, or get the most votes? They were looking out for themselves. Nothing wrong with that, you might say! We all do it. Jesus was probably smiling as listened to them thinking to Himself, “There they go again thinking like humans and not like God. Will they ever learn?” Remember that Jesus is always listening to our conversations, even when we’re unconscious of His presence! When they arrived at their destination Jesus confronted them: “What were you arguing about on the way?” (Mk 9:33). Feeling embarrassed because Jesus had been talking about His forthcoming death while they were concerned with their own status, no one answered Him. Jesus used their silence as an opportunity to teach them about what ambition meant in His Church. He told them then, and He is telling us now through His Church, that “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all” (Mk 9:35). God teaches that ambition isn’t for glorifying one’s own ego, fueling vainglory, but for serving others.

Jesus didn’t condemn ambition. It’s natural to want to be acknowledged, affirmed, and receive affection. Without it we wouldn’t accomplish anything. Rather, He showed that ambition is good only when it leads to serving the needs of others. That requires the virtue of humility; it’s about putting thee before me. The way God sees things and the way we see things aren’t the same. God looks out for the whole of creation. We have a fallen nature and live in a world that says, “Look out for yourself!” Therein lies the problem. God is selfless and we are selfish. God wants us to be, as St. Paul wrote, “ambitious for the higher gifts … but if I am without love, it will do me no good whatever” (1Cor 12:31-13:3). Real love is by its nature sacrificial. The ambitious person who is humble realizes that every good thing comes from God. St. Paul confirms this when he wrote, “In any case, brothers and sisters, has anybody given you some special right? What do you have that was not given to you? And if it was given, how can you boast as though it were not?” (1 Cor 4:7). God’s gifts are not so much given to us as they are to be shared with others through us.

The humble person’s ambition is graced with gratitude that expresses itself in worshiping God and in serving those in need. To achieve fame, power, wealth, honour in God’s eyes, we must be the best servant we can be. Humble ambition empowers us to put others above ourselves. This is the man or woman who prays daily, “O God, by Your Name save me, and by Your might defend my cause. O God hear my prayer; hearken to the words of my mouth … Behold God is my Helper; the Lord sustains my life” (Ps 54: 4, 6). Wisdom (2:12, 17-20) depicts those people whose ambition is bad because they were prideful and sought only their own self-aggrandisement. “Let us beset the Just One, because he is obnoxious to us; he sets himself against our doings, reproaches us for transgressions of the Law and charges us with violations of our training … Let us condemn him to a shameful death; for according to his own words, God will take care of him.” The “just one” refers to the promised Messiah. He came to confront sin in order to save people from their sins and so He identified the sins committed by the people for which they would have to repent, seek forgiveness and amend their life in order to saved. But they were prideful rather than humble and so set out to destroy the Messiah. They then sought to soothe their consciences by reminding themselves that the Just One said God would take care of Him. Selfish ambition served to put Jesus on the cross. It also tries to shut down Jesus’ Church today by trying to change her Traditional teaching. The conflict between those who use their ambition to serve Jesus in His Church and those who use their ambition to use Jesus and His Church to serve their prideful purposes is evident today.

Self-serving ambition is always destructive both outside and inside the Church. Why? Because it is blind and causes people to “sow in the flesh and so reap corruption” (Gal 6:8). St. James highlights the consequences of egotistical ambition: “Wherever you find jealousy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and every kind of wicked thing being done… You have an ambition that you cannot satisfy; so you fight to get your way by force. Why you don’t have what you want is because you don’t pray for it; when you do pray and don’t get it, it is because you have not prayed properly, you have prayed for something to indulge your own desires.” (Jas 3:16-4:3) St. James cautions that, “If there are any wise or learned men among you, let them show it by their good lives, with humility and wisdom in their actions” (Jas 3:13). If we temper our ambition with humility, we’ll be instruments of God’s blessing on society viewing ourselves as servants and not lords. If we don’t, we’ll be sores on the skin of the Church and of society. What matters is that our ambition runs on the tracks of humility and service seeking God’s glory whose favour and votes are the only things that count. In the words of St. Paul (12:31-13:13) “Be ambitious for the higher gifts…There are in the end three things that matter: Faith, Hope, and Charity, and the greatest of these is Charity.” Supernatural Faith, Hope, and Charity must drive all ambition if it is to be good and reflect God’s will which alone matters for our future. (fr sean)

cassini · « **Reply #71 on:** September 25, 2024, 12:02:04 PM »

Fr Sean again.
The Effects of a Diseased Soul

Pathology is the branch of medicine that studies the nature of disease, its causes, processes, development, and consequences. The term comes from two Greek words, namely ‘pathos,’ which means disease, and ‘logos,’ which means study. Since we’re composed of body and soul integrally related, we can suffer from illnesses in each of these areas. Our soul is as prone to sickness as is our body. Sickness of the soul affects our intellect and our will, our thinking and our choices. Therefore, in order to ensure health we need to be alert to the existence of disease in each of these components for the sake of our well-being. However, when it comes to the soul we don’t always view it as being diseased or sick. Sickness of the soul may very well be the root cause of some of our physical and many of our mental illnesses. Sin infects the soul and causes it to become sick. That’s why it needs to be freed from sin if we’re going to be healthy human beings. A healthy soul is crucial in order to be a healthy person. Why? The soul is the person’s substance that expresses itself through the mind and body. The signs of a healthy soul are faith, charity, trust, prayerfulness, freedom, patience, hope, joy, prudence, justice, chastity, fortitude, temperance, wisdom, faithfulness, and understanding. A diseased soul will cause unhealthy thinking that generates feelings and expression in evil physical actions. The signs of an unhealthy soul are addiction, infidelity, cowardice, hesitancy, folly, hypocrisy, conflict, meanness, harshness, lewdness, ugliness, vengefulness, covetousness, etc. A person who is greedy, lustful, lazy, jealous, wrathful, prideful, or envious has a sick soul. Our body will ultimately die whether or not it’s diseased. But our soul will not die; it will continue beyond physical death in either a healthy or a sick state. In its healthy state the soul will enjoy eternal happiness. In its diseased state the soul will experience eternal hell. Hence the urgent need to rid the soul of disease that damages its “organs,” such as the intellect, mind, unconscious, decision-making, conscience, memory, and the “spark of God.” Since the soul is what gives form to the body, makes it human and determines whether it is male or female, what happens to the soul affects the body. The Body reflects the soul. A body that reflects a damaged soul is not relaxed or at peace. We can try to change the body with drugs or surgery but we cannot change the soul. Since the soul is the essence of the person, who the person truly is at the depth of his or her being, the state of the soul determines that state of his or her humanity.

Jesus came to rid the human soul from disease through repentance and the forgiveness of sin. This is why the Sacrament of Reconciliation is so essential and why Jesus gave His Apostles, and through them their successors in His Church, the power to forgive sin. He empowered His Church under the leadership of Peter to make forgiveness of sin available to those with repentant hearts. “Then He breathed on them and said: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive men’s sins, they are forgiven them; if you held them bound, they are held bound’” (Jn 20:22-23). Jesus made forgiveness an integral part of His Church’s mission emphasizing God’s love, justice, and mercy. But it’s also essential to realize that forgiveness requires repentance on our part if we want God to free our soul from spiritual sickness. Repentance, in turn, requires a contrite heart, confession of sin, doing penance, making restitution for the damage done to ourselves and others, and amending our life in fidelity to Jesus and His Church.

Amending our life means identifying our soul’s disease, recognizing its nature, identifying its cause and consequences, and taking the steps necessary to maintain spiritual wellness. Jesus addresses the seriousness of this when He told His listeners, “If your hand is your difficulty, cut it off! ... If your foot is your undoing, cut it off... If your eye is your downfall, tear it out!” (Mk 9:43-49). He told them that it was better for them to enter Heaven maimed, crippled, and blinded than to enter hell with an intact body. Jesus isn’t advocating self-mutilation, rather He is using hyperbole to emphasize the dire need to do what’s necessary, no matter how painful, to get rid of anything that damages our soul. As I have indicated, our soul is our self – our essence, what makes us unique and human. When we’re physically sick we often have to submit to surgery in order to remove an organ or part of an organ that if left there will bring about our physical death. The same is true of the soul when its sickness threatens us with spiritual death. We don’t excise the spiritual “organ,” rather we ask God to free it from its disease by restoring the soul to its healthy state where it restores its organs to health. We need to get rid of anything that threatens the health of the soul. The ultimate consequence of bodily disease is physical death if it isn’t cured. The ultimate consequence of spiritual disease is eternal hell if it isn’t cured before we leave this world.

We hear the Psalmist proclaim that, “The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul; the decree of the Lord is trustworthy, giving wisdom to the simple … Though Your servant is careful of them, very diligent in keeping them, yet who can detect failings? Cleanse me from my unknown faults!” (Ps 19:8,12-13). Loving obedience to God’s Law “refreshes the soul.” Dishonesty sickens the soul. St. James (5:1-6) warns us that those who become rich at the expense of others will lose everything, especially their soul’s eternal happiness. Why? Because what was ill-gotten infects the soul with greed and injustice. The consequence, if dishonest people die unrepentant and without making restitution, an eternity in hell awaits them.

The law of God keeps us on Jesus’ path loving God and neighbour in a spirit of service that promotes freedom, charity, justice, and peace, the characteristics of a healthy soul. The more we strive to serve the more Satan tempts us to focus on ourselves and our own gain so that we do only what will be personally rewarding. When selfishness kicks in our soul becomes dehydrated resulting in a narrowing of our thinking and pettiness in our choices. That’s why we need to confess our sins and seek Jesus’ and His Church’s forgiveness at least once each month, and preferably more often. Our prayer each day should be, “Have mercy on me, O God, in Your goodness; in the greatness of Your compassion wipe out my offense. Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me” (Ps 51:1-4). The effects of a diseased soul are deadly and dehumanizing. A clean soul brings joy to the heart, peace to the mind, and the promise of eternal happiness. (fr sean)

cassini · « **Reply #72 on:** October 02, 2024, 04:13:38 AM »

Fr Sean again.
Marriage Is God’s Creation, not the State’s

God alone declares a relationship to be a marriage which He instituted between a man and a woman for the purpose of creating a family. The State can legalize a relationship but it has no authority to declare it a “marriage.” God revealed that, “‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I shall make a suitable partner for him’ … God then built up into a woman the rib he had taken from the man (who said), ‘This, at last, is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of ‘her man’ this one has been taken’” (Gen 2:18, 22-23). Thus God made man and woman uniquely suited to one another not only physically, but also spiritually, mentally, emotionally, socially, and morally. Two men or two women can give each other compliments but they can’t complement one another as only a man and a woman have the ability to accomplish. That complementarity is uniquely expressed in an indissoluble marriage union. “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one flesh” (Gen 2:24). The fruitfulness of their union is made visible in the procreation of children and in their mutual love for one another that’s unconditional. God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish … birds … and over every living thing…” (Gen 1:28). “The man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame” (Gen 2:25) because, before they sinned, they related to each other in love rather than lust.

Satan entered the picture tempting Adam and Eve that they could be God’s equal by eating the forbidden fruit of the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Then they would know what was good for them independently of God. Thus the scourge of relativism entered the world. Morality would now be subjective based on people’s likes and dislikes. With this came selfishness and sin. Thus the natural complementarity and solidarity between man and woman became severely damaged. While man and woman were still attracted to one another, often through disordered desires, alienation, and blaming pitted them against one another – Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the devil (Gen 3:13). Marriage, which called for complete union and unconditional love, was undermined making it more of a contract than a covenant. Man and woman no longer viewed each other in terms of collaboration but in terms of self-gratification. By rejecting God they rejected the source of unconditional love and eternal life, giving birth to selfishness and death. While human nature, despite its fallen state, brought man and woman together in marriage, they didn’t have the grace of God to help them love one another unconditionally or forgive one another so divorce entered the human scene.

The Pharisees confronted Jesus regarding divorce and asked, “Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?” (Mk 10:2). They reminded Him that, “Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce and dismiss her.” Jesus reminded them that, “Moses wrote you this commandment because of the hardness of your heart. But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together no man or woman may separate” (Mk 10: 5-9). He reinforced God’s teaching when He told them that, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery” (Mk 10:11). A divorced man or woman who “remarries” isn’t married in God’s eyes but is living in a state of adultery. Adulterers are deprived of Heaven (1 Cor 6:9-11) unless they repent and get out of that sinful state.

Jesus stated that “What God has joined, man may not pull apart” (Mt 19:6; Mk 10:9). Jesus made marriage into a Sacrament wherein He provides the necessary graces to the man and woman to remain faithful and grow in their sacrificial love for one another in a holy covenant. What God joins He provides the wherewithal to remain joined. He revealed in Ps 128 1-6, “Blessed are you who fear the Lord, who walk in His ways … Blessed shall you, and favoured. Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the recesses of your home; your children like olive branches around your table. For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork…”

Divorce reflects either the fact that one or both spouses refused to receive the graces God bestowed on them through the Sacrament of His Church, or the fact that these two people should never have entered marriage. Marriage is a vocation made in Heaven but it has to be lived on earth. The Church provides a divorced man or woman with the opportunity to examine the attempted marriage to see if God did join them together in the beginning. It is called the Annulment Process. Jesus gave Peter as the head of His Church the power to bind and to loose from bonds. If the Church’s conclusion is that God did join them but one or both decided to leave she cannot declare the marriage null and void. This is a reminder that in the mind of God and His Church marriage is a very serious undertaking for a man and a woman, hence the need for a thorough preparation to make sure that they are answering God’s call to them to marry. It is a fact that some people should never be married either because they aren’t called to that state or they are too immature and ignorant of what marital obligations entail. Marriage is for mature people who realize that God will judge them on their willingness to sacrifice themselves for one another.

Divorce is the scourge of the family. Broken families translate into broken societies. Broken societies breed dysfunctional people whose need to belong, be free, be powerful and be able to be joyful is not met. The Church should become much more stringent in her requirement of couples who present themselves for marriage. Preparation programmes should be intensified with a major emphasis on the spiritual and religious aspect of marriage. Couples who enter a sɛҳuąƖ relationship before marriage reduce the possibility of a successful marriage to 20%. The Church should require them to be chaste for at least a year before entering marriage. If people abuse their sɛҳuąƖity before marriage they will abuse it after marriage. Because marriage is created by God, not by human beings or the political government, man and woman individually need God’s unconditional love to keep them loving each other unconditionally. The vows are “until death do us part.” But one person can’t make a marriage. It takes both husband and wife with each needing Jesus as their Saviour and His Church as the means through which He spiritually nourishes and nurtures their relationship and the development of their children. Marriage calls people to be soul mates and if their souls are sick from sin so their relationship will be severely diseased. By making marriage a Sacrament of His Church Jesus assures the bride and groom of His unconditional love so each of them knows the source of the love that never runs out. Since God created marriage, only He can keep a man and woman in love with each other in a covenant relationship. This is why Jesus came to call sinners to repent and seek forgiveness from God so they could forgive one another and be reconciled so they could resume their complementary relationship. This requires humble and loving obedience to God’s will as the determiner of good and evil rather than following our own selfish notion of what’s good or bad for us. To highlight this Jesus reminds us, “Amen, I say to you whoever does not accept the Kingdom of God like a child will not enter it” (Mk 10: 15). The implication is that we must trustingly accept what God’s Kingdom requires of us if we want to enter it rather than satisfying our own ego. (fr sean)

cassini · « **Reply #73 on:** October 11, 2024, 07:40:24 AM »

Fr Sean again.
Only The Poor Go To Heaven

Jesus taught that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle (a small aperture in the Jerusalem wall) than for a rich man or woman to enter heaven. Jesus stated that, “It is hard for those who have wealth to enter the Kingdom of God!” (Mk 10:17-30). I find this statement to be a wakeup call to practice poverty, namely making what we have available to help those in need. This particular Scripture is very important in a culture obsessed with the false god of wealth. Success or failure in political leadership is measured by how financially well off people are. The wealth of a person as a measurement of how successful he or she is not how God measures our success. This standard for measuring our wellbeing tends to completely omit morality, integrity, virtue, faith, and our obligation to share. A line in the hymn, “All My Trials Lord” reminds us that “If living was something that money could buy, the rich would live and the poor would die.” Money cannot buy Heaven. The rich have status on earth but the poor have status in Heaven. Status on earth is temporary but status in Heaven is permanent.

The famous are usually the materially rich and the materially rich are usually the famous. We seem to pay more attention to what we have than on who we are as persons and where we’re headed. People are rarely honored for the kind of person they are. People are more often than not rewarded for what they do, regardless of the kind of life they lead. In the big picture, who a person is rather than what a person does or has is far more important. Doing flows from being. However, the behavior of a person can be deceptive. On the surface, the action may seem to reflect a spirit of generosity but can be motivated by the false god of popularity. Look at the politicians who make all kinds of promises before an election but fail to fulfill even a fraction of them. They seem on the surface to be concerned with the welfare of the people but are mainly interested in money, power or prestige for themselves. Who a person is – the kind of character he or she has developed and continues to build – is far more important than what a person does or has.

St. Mark relates an encounter between Jesus and a rich young man who approaches Jesus and asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” He addresses Jesus as “Good teacher.” Jesus makes a very important statement in response: “No one is good but God alone.” Only God is good and the source of all. Therefore, no one can do what is good without God. Whatever we call “good” is so only because it reflects God. Nothing that doesn’t reflect God is good, no matter how good it looks.

This young man is well off materially but lacks spiritual fulfillment. Jesus asks him if he has kept the Commandments, the minimum requirement for being a Jew. Jesus doesn’t mention the first three Commandments that spell out the minimum requirement for fidelity to God. He mentions some of those Commandments that spell out the minimum requirements for the building of a just community: you shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud; honor your father and mother.” The young man was pleased with himself because he was able to say, “Teacher, I have observed all these from my youth.” Jesus looked at him with love. The young man at this point probably thought he could sit back on his laurels and cruise the rest of the way to Heaven. Then Jesus threw him for a loop. “You are lacking in one thing.” What was that? Jesus told him to “Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in Heaven; then come, follow me.” Mark wrote that, “The young man went away sad, for he had many possessions.”

Since he was young he probably had inherited a lot of material wealth. He would be considered a “good man” because he obeyed the Commandments. His encounter with Jesus exposed the fact that he was possessed by his possessions. He put more faith in his wealth for his security than in Jesus. In this exchange Jesus is telling us that if we wish to inherit eternal life we must stop relying on things and start relying on God. Trusting in material things for one’s security always sets up a person for deep disappointment and a starved soul that makes us less human in our attitude towards others. The wealthier people become the more they rely on what is material than what is spiritual and religious. To inherit eternal life a man or woman must be eligible for such an inheritance. An inheritance is a gift. A gift cannot be bought. On the surface, it looked like this young man was a truly godly man. In reality, he wasn’t. This story demonstrates that material possessions can be huge obstacles to religious Faith and trust. The only way material possessions can help is if we use them according to God’s will. Jesus teaches us God’s will in this story. This young man found out he followed the Commandments but he didn’t trust in God. Because he didn’t trust in God, he was unwilling to share what he had with God’s family, especially those who were the poorest. The result: “his face fell, and he went away sad,” addicted to his things and rejecting Jesus’ invitation to follow Him. Wisdom is putting knowledge of God into action. This young man was unwise, a fool. Don’t let your possessions make a fool of you. You will die one day and have to let go of all of them. Then what will you have to cling to for security and happiness?

We cannot enter Heaven unless we’re poor. Jesus revealed that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to the poor (Mt 5:3). To be a Christian is to practice a spirit of poverty. Poverty is reflected in a spirit of availability – making our time, talent, and treasure available to our family, parish Church, and all who are in need . Jesus said, “Where your treasure is there your heart will be” (Mt 6:21). Where our heart is determines what we look to for security, power, meaning, purpose, peace, love, and life. These can never be fully attained here on earth. If our treasure is in Heaven, then our heart will be joined to the heart of Jesus that perfects our heart and fills it with a joy and a happiness that is eternal. Jesus taught, “Where I am, there will my servants be.” He spent the bulk of His time on earth with the poor, the needy, the condemned, the orphans and widows, the weak and the lost. Today He is in His Church continuing to call us to reform our life, repent and believe in the Gospel. That’s where we must be too, letting Him reform us through repentance for our sins and sharing our blessings with the poor so that they can feel blessed. That’s where Jesus needs us.

Every one of us will leave behind our material possessions when death comes. We cannot take our bank accounts, stocks, or property with us. Corpses do not have suitcases and hearses do not have luggage racks. We mustn’t wait for death to force us to give up our possessions. We must invest what we have through practicing the virtue of poverty that God translates into building up treasure in Heaven. When we invest what we have through totally relying on God’s providence we will become poor because to be poor is to recognize that whatever we give will be rewarded beyond our imagination. Jesus told His Apostles that whatever we give for His “sake and for the sake of the Gospel will receive a hundred times more now in this present age… and eternal life in the age to come. You and I cannot enter Heaven without becoming poor. The paradox of Christianity is that to become rich in eternity we must become poor here on earth. It is in giving that we receive. It is in giving that we know God’s love is aflame in our heart. The amount that we give and the attitude with which we give it, will be used by God to determine what is given back to us. (fr sean)

cassini · « **Reply #74 on:** October 17, 2024, 05:16:30 AM »

29th Sunday
Fr Sean again.
Heaven Is for Servants – The World’s Unimportant People

The worldly expectation is that the important people are to be served while the unimportant people have to serve themselves and others. In Victorian England servants were viewed as the lower class and referred to by their last name, while the Master and Mistress of the house were the upper class to whom the servants bowed. To be someone’s servant assigned him or her to a lower class of people. Society categorizes the educated and wealthy as more important than the illiterate or the poor. Those claiming royalty were viewed as ‘blue bloods.’ Ironically, the origin of the term ‘blue blood’ stemmed from the skin and veins turning blue due to the use of silvery cutlery and goblets which, of course, only the materially wealthy could afford. ‘Blue blood’ was actually a disease. Society divides the labour force into “white collar” and “blue collar” workers. The managerial, professional worker is associated with belonging to a higher class than the manual labourer. This is the world into which Jesus came and confronted. It’s a world that continues today in one form or another despite two thousand years of Christianity.

Jesus changed the world’s value system by exposing its inhumanity and replacing it with God’s will for man and woman. He challenged the notion of class distinction by changing the standard for measuring people’s importance. “He raised up the lowly and deposed the mighty from their thrones” (Lk 1:22). Jesus warned, “What profit does a man show who gains the whole world but suffers the loss of his soul in the process?” (Mk 8:36). Saving the soul is more important than amassing possessions. Saving one’s soul comes about only through living according to the example and teaching of Jesus who guaranteed His presence in His Church until the end of time saving men and women from the sins of pride, greed, lust, wrath, sloth, covetousness. He revealed that the truly great are those who enter Heaven by living a life of service to God and neighbour. He turned the world’s standard for measuring importance and success on its head by making servanthood rather than knighthood the criterion for entry to Heaven. He also made suffering a means to salvation by showing that if accepted and united with His suffering it would lead to resurrection from the dead and help to save others. God revealed through Isaiah that the promised Messiah (Jesus) “By His suffering shall …justify many, taking their faults on himself” (Is 53:10-11).

Jesus set the example by proclaiming, “The Son of Man has not come to be served but to serve – to give His life in ransom for many” (Mk 10: 45). To follow in Jesus’ footsteps, to be a true member of His Church, requires us to be like Him, namely to be a servant to others by sharing our gifts with them. He made caring for the needs of others a necessary requirement to be Christian. On Holy Thursday evening, after Jesus instituted the Holy Eucharist and ordained the Apostles to “Do this in memory of me,” He washed their feet. Then He commanded His newly ordained priests, “You address me as ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and fittingly enough for that is what I am. But if I washed your feet – I who am Teacher and Lord – then you must wash each other’s feet” (Jn 13:13-14). To impress the importance of service as a visible sign of faith in Him, Jesus added, “What I just did was to give you an example: as I have done, so you must do” (Jn 13:15). This is what makes Christianity both unique and difficult for us because we are sinners and basically selfish. Struggling with a fallen nature we’re prone to egotism and self-obsession. We expect a payoff for what we do. But service doesn’t always guarantee a payoff because those who’re being served often can’t pay us back. It’s easy to serve when we’re being rewarded but it takes Christian Faith and fortitude to continue serving when we’re not rewarded. True service lies in giving without counting the cost. For that we need supernatural Faith, Hope and Charity.

Jesus’ apostles, James and John, were thinking about themselves when they put in their application for good jobs in God’s Kingdom. “Grant that in Your glory we may sit one at Your right and the other at Your left” (Mk 10:37). Don’t we all tend to look out for our own security? Jesus asked them if they knew the kind of service and suffering their request would entail. He didn’t scold them for their self-importance but took the opportunity to teach them a key lesson that we all need to learn, namely that, “Whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all” (Mk 10:43-44). God's Kingdom is inhabited only by those who are willing to suffer and serve as the least important in society.

Service and suffering aren’t always easy because they involve sacrifice. Like Jesus, serving others requires that we sacrifice ourselves for their benefit. The biggest sacrifice of all is to put you before me. That involves giving up our own comfort and convenience in the process of responding to other’s needs. If Jesus sacrificed Himself for us, and if we want to be His followers, we must sacrifice ourselves for our neighbour if we want to be Christ-like – Christian. G.K. Chesterton reminds us that, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.” Christianity has been left untried.” Why? Because it calls for humans to serve instead of being served, to be other-centred instead of being self-centred. The motivation stems from recognizing that, “Our soul is waiting for the Lord. The Lord is our help and our shield” (Ps 31:4-22). The more we serve the more our soul encounters the Lord who is our help and our protector enabling us to be selfless in our thoughts and behaviour.

It’s service to one another that the world is most in need of every day. Imagine what the world would be like if each of us was oriented to serving others instead of feeling entitled and expecting to be served. Service calls us to practice the virtues of generosity, humility, and charity. These virtues displace the vices of pride, lust, greed, jealousy and envy. They support and promote the preciousness of human life, thereby eliminating war, violence, abortion, euthanasia, sɛҳuąƖ trafficking, etc. While the world divides people into classes creating class distinction that generates conflict, abuse, jealousy, envy, disrespect, virtue signalling etc., Christian service promotes repentance and reconciliation. This is why the world is in dire need of Christianity, like dry land needs water, to create communities that are productive and fruitful. A spirit of service is what the world needs now and what Jesus came to instil in the heart of every human being. Let’s not resist that spirit that reflects the Holy Spirit’s truth and love. The salvation of our souls depends on it. We cannot enter heaven without being servants. As servants we pray, “May Your kindness, O Lord, be upon us who have put our hope in You” (Ps 32:22). (fr sean)

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