We are such a sports-minded society that we want to see everything as a competition between the “us’s” and the “them’s.” Politics, for example, has become a vicious competition in which party favorites are raised up as superheroes, and opponents are ground into the dirt. As a result, we have great division in our country. Sadly, this us-versus-them mentality has found its way into the Church. Have you noticed the “pro Pope” people and the “con Pope” people? Who would ever imagine this would happen?
This attitude that we are sitting on the sidelines watching our “teams” compete, and then giving them our “thumbs up” or “thumbs” down, has made us feel that our approval power is what counts the most. Has God put us in a judgement seat to pronounce sentence on the world?
Let’s listen to the attitude Jesus promotes (Luke 17:7-10).
“Who among you would say to your servant who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here immediately and take your place at the table?’ Would he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for me to eat. Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink.”
Servants do not expect to be treated as royalty. When they finish one task, they begin the next task put to them. They don’t try to trade places with their bosses and say to them: “Okay, now let’s trade jobs, and you serve me for a while.”
Jesus used this commonsense example as the model of servanthood he expected his Apostles to follow.
“So should it be with you. When you have done all you have been commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable’ servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.”
When we sit smugly on the sidelines and make a judgment on our pastors, our bishops, or even the Pope are we acting as grateful servants? Do we realize the unsurpassed gifts God has given us to share in the life of the Holy Spirit, and to join Jesus in his ministry of servanthood? Do we remember that being a born-again Christian is not something we deigned to sign up for but something God gave us freely because he loves us. Are we not humbled that Jesus hung on a cross for us so that we could be admitted into the Kingdom of his Father, that he forgives us our sins when we repent, and that he has allowed us to serve him?
I am impressed with former Protestants who have come into the Catholic Church; they all seem to have a humble gratitude that God has let them come into full communion with the Church, and a loyalty to its leaders, teachings and practices. I compare this to the attitude of some disgruntled Catholics I’ve met who seem dissatisfied with everything from the way Mass is done, to the teachings of the Church, and to the way the hierarchy do their jobs.
Today we remember the humility of Jesus, “who though he was by nature God, did not regard equality with God something to cling to, but emptied himself, taking on the form of a slave…” (Philippians 2:6-7).
What in us does God want to empty today?
