The Least is the Greatest

May 30, 2012

Wednesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

By Colleen O'Sullivan

The disciples were on the way, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus went ahead of them.  They were amazed, and those who followed were afraid.  Taking the Twelve aside again, he began to tell them what was going to happen to him.  “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles who will mock him, spit upon him, scourge him, and put him to death, but after three days he will rise.”

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”  He replied, “What do you wish me to do for you?” They answered him, “Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left.”  Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking”…  Jesus summoned (the Twelve) and said to them, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt.  But it shall not be so among you.  Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant.  For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  (Mark 10:32-38a, 42-45)

Piety

O Loving Jesus, although you are the Son of God, you humbled yourself and became a servant to all.  I pray for the grace to follow your example, to live a life of service to others.

Study

How do we use power?  What does it mean to be great?  These are questions raised in today’s Gospel reading. 

As I was pondering Jesus’ words, I thought about some of my work experiences.  When I first moved to the Washington area 22 years ago, I worked for a professional services firm where the partners were all about power.  Hardly a day went by in that office without some great battle between two or more of them over turf and command.  The partners were firmly in control and didn’t want anyone beneath them to forget it.  They used people purely for their own gain.  In fact, the other employees only counted insofar as they were useful to the partners’ purposes.

Contrast that with the office I work in today, a small trade association.  I report directly to the president and CEO, who, by virtue of his position, has power.  But he doesn’t flaunt his position.  He doesn’t expect anything from anyone else that he doesn’t expect from himself.  He treats his employees with respectful consideration.  If he goes to the copier to get something he printed, he’s not above picking up any jobs I’ve sent to it and bringing them to me. 

James and John might have fit in quite well in the first office I described.  They wanted power and glory. They must not have heard a thing Jesus said about being a suffering servant Messiah.  Their friend and leader is on the way to betrayal, torture, and execution and all they can think about is the choice positions they would like in the kingdom of God.  They want to be partners!

Oh, you will be partners, says Jesus, just not the sort you are imagining.  You will follow in my footsteps and experience what I’m about to experience.  If you really want to be great, he tells them, you have to humble yourselves and be least of all.  You have to be willing to reach out in love and service to the sick, the poor, and the suffering. 

Action

I went on retreat during Holy Week.  The image which keeps coming back to me is the foot-washing during the Holy Thursday Mass.  I keep seeing the Son of God in the Upper Room, not counting “equality with God a thing to be grasped,” but rolling up his sleeves, taking a cloth, a basin and pitcher of water, kneeling down and lovingly washing the filthy, stinky, cracked feet of his beloved friends, and then bending over and lovingly kissing those feet. 

When you have some time today, reflect on the people who are your heroes in the faith.  I’d be willing to bet they aren’t people filled with their own self-importance, but people whose greatness consists in their loving service to their brothers and sisters.