Yesterday we heard Jesus saying that we must be servant of all if we want to be great. It's the opposite of what the world tells us: everywhere we look we see that people want to be great at all cost and they are willing to do whatever it takes. In our life, however, happens the same thing. Not all of us will make it to the big screen or to American Idol but all of us know the desire of being great.
In today's Gospel we get an example. An ordinary scene: a mom wants the best for their sons. it's quite common to see parents pushing for their children's success. Sometimes to an excess. This woman is no less than all other moms. And in a way it's not really her fault for what she is asking: probably she didn't hear Jesus saying "If you want to be the greatest, be the servant of all" or that "the Son of Man had to suffer and die and on the third day he will rise again."
She is not been formed and informed by the Word of God. She follows her human instinct and makes the request: "put my children in the spotlight, so that everybody knows how successful they are" ("and finally know what a great mom I really am?") After the words of Jesus, this request sounds like it's out of tune, it clashes against all that Jesus said and done. See what happens when we don't take the Gospel seriously?
We find it hard to accept that greatness comes from service. We want to be heard, and so we scream; we want to assert ourselves, and so we protest. These things in the Kingdom will never work because Jesus told us that is not they way. History proves it: those we consider the greatest today are those who served the most.
It's very tricky. We are really attracted to greatness. We are destined to it but we can't get there on our own and in our own way, especially in the way we are trained to do: by pushing other people down. If someone is really good, does he really need to tell people how bad other peoples are?
Also, today we have new ways of asserting ourselves that make us feel great and grand. We demand that we may talk to the supervisor at the local fast food restaurant because our fries were not as we wanted them. We demand people being fired from their job because they couldn't fulfill our demands properly. I see the same in the Church: we don't agree with the Church so we want to the Pope to step down and put someone else there. From the point of view of the Kingdom, these things sound just as silly as that woman's demand. They are silly because they are motivated by pride, that makes us want to hold on to what we think, what we like. Certainly there are times when we need to speak out and demand justice when people's rights are trampled on. But that is an expression of service, not of pride.
What to do, then? This is another call to remain focused on the Word of God, and let Jesus teach us how to live so that the inner desires of our soul and mind may find true satisfaction. We know now that it is by loving others that we can really be great. It is by focusing on what the person in front of me really needs and make that need my own... this makes us really great.
Then, it's time to go out there and live our "greatness" by loving the other a bit more today than we did yesterday. Who's with me?
1 comment:
I'm with you. Loving and trying to be understanding has gotten me much better results as a parent than pushing and pulling ever did. It's a good change, albeit a hard one to do when the world demands action rather than simply allowing life to unfold. We are so programmed to expect and demand action--ambition, goal-achieving. Someone with no grand ambitions, no big goals or plans for "success" is deemed "lazy." what do you do as a parent when your child's only ambition is to be a good person--which requires no great financial success, no great worldly goals? It takes courage to stand behind him/her and say, "hooray for you!" People think you're nuts and a terrible parent. But, if you think about it, being a good person is all that is required of any of us...and it's in many ways easier than achieving worldly success.
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