LAST OF ALL, SERVANT OF ALL
Papa Francesco has returned to Rome, but we’re still riding the high from his visit. One sharp memory is of him wheeling around the National Stadium blessing babies and children. He never turned even one away. In fact, as we watched on the screens, he held out his hand to those trying to reach him and gestured to the young ones hesitating to approach. It was almost half an hour before he made it to the stage. Not that we were complaining – we were enjoying pointing out the brave young ones, like the cheeky boy with nerve enough to take a selfie with the pontiff, taking the time to adjust his phone, taking several shots where he was apparently trying different smiles. Or the stoic guard (who must have been a pro footballer in a previous life) who expertly handled even the fussiest babies handed to him by eager parents leaning over the rails. It was hilarious.
It was also a direct lesson on how Pope Francis walks by what Jesus teaches: that anyone welcoming ‘one of these little children’ in His name welcomes Him and the one who sent Him (Mk 9:37). Everyone else in the stadium had to wait, even our ministers, officials, and international guests. At that moment, the littlest and the least were the greatest, deserving the most attention from the most respected Earthly servant of God our Father.
Children in Jesus’ day had no status. Sure, they were precious to their parents. But they had no voice, no representation, no power, no influence. They were little people who could easily be controlled, abused or neglected. Unfortunately, it’s pretty much the same for a lot of today’s marginalized, poor, migrant workers, elderly, infirm, or dying. In many cases they are served and provided for, but – perhaps, sometimes – with a touch of impatience? Or distraction, because some greater need is calling for attention? Or, service is rendered only because it involves some kind of payback? That would truly be a blow to the heart of the Lord.
Jesus calls us in today’s Gospel to ‘make ourselves last of all and servant of all’ (Mk 9: 35). Putting ourselves last, serving even one – not to mention all – can seem like an impossible request. We need to get ahead, don’t we? And aren’t there supporting systems in place to take care of the vulnerable or those in need? If we’re trying to become the best to reach our goals, isn’t serving someone else, with their endless, constant needs, just going to slow us down? Plus, when we try to advocate or support them, aren’t we sometimes ridiculed or opposed? Then stress sets in, and frustration – with them, with ourselves, with the system. Anger, sadness. Guilt.
The sacred and the secular war within us. It’s easy to lose sight of what we’re doing with our time on Earth, and how we’re juggling different goals.
In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus actually tells the disciples three times about His pending death, but they don’t seem to hear Him. In this second instance in today’s text, they instead divert to arguing about status and who the greatest of them is. The bigger picture seems lost. The fact that their God is about to die is trampled in their intense focus on their place in the world. But then, this happens to us, too, doesn’t it? We forget, sometimes, that time here isn’t eternal. That as believers, we are called to participate in the bigger picture, the grand scheme of God’s plan of salvation, that includes acting as His servants to make peace, to bring to a godless world His pure wisdom. We’re called to be kind, considerate, compassionate. We’re called to do good – all the time, and for everyone – without partiality, without hypocrisy. That’s what James tells us today.
And that means we have to stand by the principles of our faith even when we are ridiculed or opposed. The world might try to make us fit its mould, testing the strength of our beliefs, turning God’s Word against us, maybe even treating some of us ‘with cruelty and with torture’ (Wis 2:19), just to prove that God won’t rescue us.
It may not be as dire as that. It may test the way we take care of family or community members who need us, to see how long before our patience gives out. It may test how we support or deny the teachings of the Gospel. It may test the manner in which we advance to positions of authority. Or how we live with others, whether in jealousy and disharmony, or whether we strive, despite all frustrations and differences, to be ones who make peace.
‘Peacemakers’, James says in today’s second reading, ‘sow the seeds which bear fruit in holiness.’ Jesus didn’t ask us to keep the peace – He said to make it. That needs conscious and brave action. It means acting as God’s servants in every sphere of our lives where His pure wisdom is lacking. It means battling the desires fighting inside our own selves (Jas 4:1). We have to face any dark ambitions we might be harbouring that are leading us away from holiness, even as they advance us in the eyes of the world.
This challenge to worldly values that the disciples found so difficult confronts our Church in every age, from the time of the apostles until now. There is a way, though, to win this combat: serving with love. Service, in itself, isn’t enough if it doesn’t resound with the sincerity, the goodness, the love of the Lord. If time and conflicting goals are causing us to serve perfunctorily, we might be due for a service check. How are we balancing our lives to include serving with love? Can anyone do it?
The clearest examples are right in our church: Holy Family’s ever-compassionate, ever-willing servants in our parish ministries and offices, many of whom surely swallow insults, rebuke, maybe even aggression, as they cheerfully volunteer their time and resources, not because of glory or position, but because they want to walk like Jesus. The astonishing thing is how they serve consistently, without faltering, even in the littlest task. Their commitment is amazing. While leading full personal and professional lives, they run our parish, teach our young in faith, mourn our deceased, pray with us, serve at Mass, serve in the canteen, serve our poor, serve at small and big events…
Servants of All? Look at them with fresh and grateful eyes.
Pope Francis calls us all, like Jesus, to serve those who serve us: the migrant workers who helped build our city, the elderly, the sick – even as we thank God for blessing our nation with success in many things. He told our young people to have courage and take risks, to stand for what is right, but in a constructive manner. He echoed what we read today in the texts of Wisdom, James, and Mark.
Our pontiff himself is living proof of what it means to be a stalwart servant. Joining the pope on his flight home, a local reporter on board gave an account of how, despite the tiredness he must have been feeling, Pope Francis ‘continued to be a pontiff even in his private moments’ as he gave her his time and attention.
She said despite living in a world where ‘people are first suspicious of one another before opening up’, she found herself ‘suddenly drawn to the Pope’s receptiveness and love towards people’, even though she isn’t a Roman Catholic. The pope, she said, could have called it a day, after meeting millions who wanted ‘a piece of him’. Instead, he showed her that she wasn’t inconveniencing him, but left her ‘with my cup running over’.
As we begin a new week, may we follow Jesus in observing where we can serve with love, with small gestures and small kindnesses, not desiring any greatness in return, but only the reciprocating love of God warming our hearts.
Article by Joyce Norma, HFC Blog Contributor