29th Sunday, B, IC
The believer in Christ can
have one of two fundamental responses to Him. One is expressed by the yet-unpolished
manners of the apostles, James and John, as recorded in this Gospel. The other
is expressed in our given passage from the Imitation of Christ.
To appreciate the first
fully, one has to ponder what might have been in the imaginations of these two
apostles. Jesus had already made known to them that He would return in glory as
absolute sovereign King over the entire universe. Perhaps in their thoughts,
they meditated sometimes on a magnificent panorama: at the end of time, all
things would come to a standstill, and then the heavens would open in a
splendid display, and all flesh would behold the glorious Jesus coming down
from the clouds as Lord of all creation. At that time it will be unmistakably
clear that everything about Jesus, about his Catholic Church was true. No one
will ever again be able to deny Him or disobey Him. The game will be up; the
Lord will settle accounts. “Where then will I be?” they wondered. Wouldn’t it
be wonderful to be His accomplice in vindication, to be able to say to
everyone, “See, I told you so; it’s all true. And, look, here am I standing
right beside the Lord in His kingdom. Everything was worth the effort that I
put into this, and my Christian life is now justified.”
That’s only my guess about
the motivation behind the request that James and John make of Jesus, “Grant
that in your glory we may sit, one at your right and the other at your left.”
They were not necessarily asking a bad thing. Who, that knows Christ, would not
want to be next to Him for eternity? But the answer of Jesus must have
struck them hard. Even now we find it surprising. ‘Be everybody’s slave if you
want greatness for yourselves.’ But we protest: that’s not the way it’s
supposed to be! Our Lord would later explain this, not so much in words, but by
His Passion. He would show them that He is the servant of humanity by giving up
His life for their salvation. They too would have their chance to contribute a
portion in the passion by receiving a baptism of blood: their martyrdom. Our
Lord thus changed their self-interest into self-giving.
By contrast, the disciple of
the Imitation asks not what do I get out of being a loyal Christian, but
rather ‘what can I do to express my gratitude for everything I have in Christ?’
He asks what he could possibly mean to God, what value could God find in him
who is a mere product of His making, who, in fact, is a sinner once corrupted
and lost? And if Christ does ask for that he serve Him, what could such
a small thing mean to Him? It’s a wonder that He even would accept such poor
service! God seems merely to be ‘letting us help’, much in the way that a
parent allows his little child ‘help him’ doing some chores, when in fact his
help contributes nearly nothing. Truly it is an honor, a privilege, even
to be allowed to serve the Lord. That’s a wholly different attitude from the
one expressed by the apostles, as you can plainly see.
This reminds me of memorable
words recorded by one of our past Presidents, actually borrowed from the great
Roman orator Cicero: “ask not what your country can do for you, but what you
can do for your country.” That kind of thinking is now not much in the minds of
a people that has grown to demand much and give but little. This shows itself
in our selfish ways in our family life, in our expectation that our government
(or our insurance company), or our God to do everything for us while we merely
stand in the receiving line with ne’er a thank you to say, as if everything
were owed to us.
I wonder whether or not we
really ‘get’ the message of this Gospel, whether we are even capable of getting
it in this self-absorbed age. Does Jesus really mean to serve Him? And does He
truly expect that we should be at the service of others besides? This must be
mere pious talk, and not a prescription, a requirement, for being a Christian.
So we think, and so we act, in neglect–more by ‘omission’–than in sinful
commission against the Lord.
I would like to leave you
with the thought of wanting to become generous with God. When you offer Him
your service, when you consent to keep the commandments, when you suppress your
nasty side, you should want to do it out of gratitude for what you already have
received so abundantly from Him. You should think that He’s good just in giving
you a chance to do some little good for Him. And the realization that He also
rewards those poor efforts of yours, and in a measure far beyond their real
value, is but another proof of His immense generosity. So, we should not
deceive ourselves into thinking that we have done a good deal. “When you have
done you are told,” He said, “you should say, ‘we are useless servants; we have
only done our duty’.”
I want to close with a prayer
I like very well and that expresses these thoughts in some fine phrases
attributed to Saint Ignatius of Loyola:
Grant
me, Lord, to give to you, and not to count the cost;
to
fight for you and not to mind the wounds;
to labor and to ask for no reward, except the knowledge that I serve my Lord.