WORD ALIVE

Once a priest was complaining why his bishop kept naming “monsignors” in his diocese.

The bishop said to him, “You know why? When I give the purple attire to some priests, the faces of other priests turn either blue or green. Blue in anger and green in envy.”
That priest’s reaction is as old as Christ himself, as shown in Sunday’s gospel (Matthew 20,17-28). We discern how human the disciples of Christ were, indeed. 

The gospel relates that the mother of James and John approached the Lord to allow his two sons to sit: one on his right, the other on his left in his Kingdom.
We have here clearly not only “palakasan,” (exerting influence) but also “sipsip” (ingratiating oneself for a favor) for two “mama’s boys.”

Jesus, sensing a party squabble, called his disciples together and lectured them. He had to repeat a fundamental theme of his teaching. 

The idea of authority common at that time, to which the apostles clung, was that of a monarch, “lording it over others.”

“It cannot be that way with you,” Jesus stressed. “Anyone among you who aspires to greatness must serve the rest and whoever wants to rank first must serve the needs of all.”
The disciple must be like the Master Jesus “who came not to be served, but to serve.” 
 

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Christ’s teaching on “servant leadership” applies likewise to political candidates, seeking various positions after filing their candidacies. The trouble is that candidates promise heaven and earth to serve, but once elected, they no longer serve but “serve-us.”

Like the apostles, we surely have our failings and weaknesses but what’s important as the politicians should do is to be sorry and to reform as God wants it.
 

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One time I was talking to a barangay chairman. I asked him why he keeps on running for the top barangay position.

He replied: “I want people to have a high regard for me and my family. I want people to recognize me and make ‘mano’ in public.”

This is just the opposite of what Jesus said strongly. “If anyone wants to be first, he should be the last of all, and servant of all” Mark 9, 13).
 

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Appeal. Some seminarians need financial assistance. Without them, we cannot have ordained ministers to dispense the sacraments of the Holy Mass, baptism, confession, and become SVD missionaries.

Donate any amount or sponsor a seminarian's schooling, good for one school year. Email: [email protected].
 

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“The family that prays together stays together.”