February 20, 2008
Wednesday of the Second Week in Lent
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“Heed me, O Lord, and listen to what my adversaries say. Must good be repaid with evil that they should dig a pit to take my life?” (Jeremiah 18:19-20)
“I hear the whispers of the crowd; terrors are all around me. They conspire against me; they plot to take my life. But I trust in you, Lord. I say, ‘You are my God.’” (Psalms 31:14-15)
“Whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be 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 20:26-28)
Piety
Lord, give me the faith and confidence to do service without expecting public acclaim or even a private “thank you.” Let me learn from Christ’s example.
Study
During my annual review last week, I talked with my supervisor about the fact that I’d applied for a different position under her purview. The conversation still was on my mind when I got together with a couple friends. We talked about the seeming inconsistency of blowing your own horn during a typical job interview and of reflecting a desire to do service.
“How do you balance the two?” I asked.
“You can tell,” one friend said. “The ones you need to be careful about hiring only talk about themselves... only about their accomplishments. They need to be needed, and that’s what it’s about, rather than the work and how they can serve.”
But if we don’t speak up for ourselves, don’t proclaim our good works, who will know? In today’s gospel reading, the mother of James and John certainly was concerned about her boys getting their “fair” share, which to her mind were seats at Christ’s right and left hands in the Kingdom. And what about those situations as described in Jeremiah and Psalms, when others plot against us? Don’t we have to defend ourselves, make sure we get our fair share?
No, we don’t.
It might be a fine line, but it’s a very distinct one, the line between boasting and demonstrating competence, between defensiveness and confidence, between being served and serving. And we know when we cross that line and make it about us rather than about serving the Lord.
Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, president of Human Life International, provides an interesting treatise at http://www.catholicexchange.com/node/36533 on what “success” looks like. We have it all wrong, he says, when we talk about reaching the top rung of the ladder:
In order to serve, we must step down from the top of that ladder and move to the bottom. The
God expects us to use our gifts as parents, teachers, daughters, sons, writers, priests, lectors, ushers, attorneys, nurses, doctors... the list goes on. But the reason we have those gifts is not self-aggrandizement. It’s so we may serve in this world and prepare for the next.
Action
Cursillistas are always doing service: in our organization, in our parishes, in our outside ministries. In the spirit of Lenten growth, resolve that for the next week, you will do absolutely nothing to promote the good you do and will instead focus on those you serve.
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