+THE GREAT ARE THOSE WHO SERVE 8 Mar.2023
The words of today’s gospel are a challenge to all of us, certainly I found them so. When the mother of the sons of Zebedee asked that they may sit one at his right, the other at his life in his kingdom, Jesus asks them and us all if they are willing to drink the chalice he was about to drink.
We heard at Vigils the morning of mother Teresa of Calcutta and her call to serve the poor, the outcasts. She found herself greatly disturbed by this but out of love responded to our Lord’s invitation. What a great woman and saint she has become.
We all have many occasions to serve the poor and needy around us if only we allow ourselves to be attentive.
Jesus reverses our whole understanding of what it means to have status or worth in our world, telling us that “whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.” As his followers we are to give our lives for one another. Mysteriously we are to fill up the sufferings of Christ as St Paul tells us, in our world today and to do it out of love.
(Jer. 18:18-20; Mt 20:17-28)