Servant Leadership July 25

Piety

Let us pray.

De colores! We witness your Son up on clear and bright mornings! Wake us to your message so we can transform ourselves to your Way before it is too late.

Jesus, turn the tables on our life. Free us from what imprisons us so that we can devote our life to the mission you long for us to begin. Help us to understand and use our freedom with great humility serving others with the love that you modeled for us. Amen.

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/072506.shtml

“Whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant.” Matthew 20:26

Jesus introduces us to two interesting and interlocking concepts in his teaching today. Leadership and Liberation. Servant leaders posses the power to ransom the many from what imprisons them.

This is just the latest example of how Jesus just does things differently than humanity. It’s not just about perks and privilege. The things we want are not the things Jesus will grant to us as the mother of James and John learns when she asks Jesus to put her sons in positions of power. However, the value of what Jesus provides far exceeds the value of anything we can want from the material world because the surpassing power is from God, not from us.

If you want to “reach higher,” you’ll need to set your sights on something other than that new Lincoln. If you want to move forward, you’ll have to step out of dreaming about a new Toyota.

St. Paul reminds the Corinthians and us that we are “always carrying about in the dying body of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our body.” If we believe in the servant leadership of Jesus, then we, in turn, must evangelize, speak out, and proclaim the Good News by our actions.

Leadership and liberation differentiates yet another difference between the rulers of the world and the leaders of the Church. No longer is leadership measured by going to the head of the class. Rather, the leaders among us must go to the back of the class and sincerely serve the rest in the same way Jesus modeled for us.

Action

Get up early and watch the sun come up this week.