I have a lovely 90 year-old neighbor named, Barbara. She is a very sweet woman. Because of a hearing loss, she will sleep through the tornado warnings we have in Oklahoma. We try to help each other out. Last year her cat escaped from her screened-in patio. I guided her cat inside and I became known as the “Cat Herder”. As a kid, I wanted to be a cowboy. I guess you start small.
Recently, Barbara had trouble watering her flowers. The apartment complex hoses were in terrible disrepair. Barbara liked my hose attachment , but we figured out that it wouldn’t work without a proper hose. She said that someone was going to purchase one for her. A couple of days later they didn’t bring the hose. Another neighbor gave her one, but couldn’t install it because of the pool machinery was in the way. I said that I would feed it through the opening, but could not do it right away. She said she would leave her screen door opened. Well as my day progressed, I ran out of time. I went the next day and the screen was locked. As it turned out someone else had fed the hose through the opening and she had the water pressure she needed to water her flowers. Success!
The greatest among you must be your servant. Anyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and anyone who humbles himself will exalted.’ It took a community of servants to help Barbara. The apartment complex was focused on making sure the residence had air-conditioning through the Oklahoma summer of 100-degree weather. Everyone who helped Barbara was a servant. Saint Paul writes,
I pray, kneeling before the Father, from whom every family, whether spiritual or natural, takes its name: Out of his infinite glory, may he give you the power through his Spirit for your hidden self to grow strong, so that Christ may live in your hearts through faith, and then, planted in love and built on love, you will with all the saints have strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth; until, knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond all knowledge, you are filled with the utter fullness of God.
If Christ lives in our hearts we are joined to all the saints to serve others because of the love of Christ.
The Saint whose feast day we celebrate, Saint Bonaventure, whole life was that of a humble servant, as well as, a preacher, teacher and leader of the Franciscan Order.
From the Franciscan Media the following quote. “In his bull of canonization, Pope Sixtus IV wrote: Bonaventure was great in learning, but no less great in humility and holiness. His innocence and dove-like simplicity were such that Alexander of Hales, the renowned doctor whose disciple St. Bonaventure became, used to say of him that it seemed as though Adam had never sinned in him.”
In my humble opinion we cannot be a servant in a vacum. We need others to serve and others to help us serve others. My personal challenge from today’s scripture is to be more open to opportunities during the day to server others. I will give glory and praise to the persons who helpped Barbara. Myself, my job is to look for other opportunities to serve others.
God Love You Always
Bob Burford
PS: Continue praying for peace in the Ukraine and pray for Cancer victims and their caregivers.
