Jesus' chief criterion for greatness is the willingness to be of service to others.

Twenty Fifth Sunday in OT  B  2018 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is inviting us to reflect on the meaning of our discipleship as we come to understand the true identity of Jesus.

Jesus forecasts once again his suffering, death, and resurrection.  The disciples’ response is disheartening.  They understand nothing and they are afraid to ask any questions.

The disciples had been arguing about who was the greatness among them.   The conversations the disciples had about who among is the greatest is familiar human behavior, is it not. Jesus rebukes his disciples for thinking that they might achieve greatness without following his example of suffering and service.\

Jesus’s chief criterion for greatness is the willingness to be of service to others.

Jesus’ disciples loved him but they did not understand him.  His way of thinking was just too different.  So, when words didn’t suffice, he picked up child to show his argumentative disciples what it looks like to be in first place in the reign of God.

Their mission was to share the love they had been given so freely.  They were called to the humble, humbling service of embracing the little people just as Jesus did.

When Jesus picked up the child, he was performing a living parable, teaching that loving someone is the greatest service you can do them; everything else flows from that and nothing else is very valuable without it.  Jesus presents them with a new flowchart for organizing the kingdom of God.  And children are on the top of the list.

The CMA video that began the liturgy, along with the mailing asking your generous support of our diocesan ministries, invites us to express our willingness to financially be of service to others.  From today’s Gospel, in the mind of Jesus, the true criterion of greatness is our willingness to be of service to others.  The Catholic Ministries Appeal supports the servant ministries of our diocese.

I would comment clearly that I recognize full well that the dark clouds of sex abuse might lead you to question your commitment to support the CMA.  I get it.  Printed and in capital letters is the diocesan commitment that not a dime of the CMA will be used for legal claims or in any way related to the issue of sex abuse.

The reason to support the CMA is that the CMA monies are used to support that is good in the mission and the ministries of the diocese.  I personally am going to increase my tithing to the CMA and invite you to do the same, if you are able.  For us to be faithful to our Gospel commitment to be of service to others, there is no such thing as a free pass.  In season and out of season, we are called to share of the giftedness that is ours.

Additionally,  this is also our parish stewardship commitment weekend.  In the second collection today, we are asking you to place your commitment card.  To be clear, the parish stewardship commitment is of our time and our talents.  We are not asking for a parish stewardship of treasure in our parish commitment.  We are focused on the stewardship of time and talent.

The heart of a spirituality of stewardship is living with an attitude of gratitude and sharing with others the blessings that we have been given. This is living out our discipleship of the Lord Jesus.

In gratitude, we commit ourselves to a stewardship of time.  What does that mean?  In one word, prayer.  Each and every day that God gives to us, we seek to spend time in a prayer of gratitude.  This can be in the silence of early morning prayer; it can be reflectively praying with the Scriptures; it can be praying the rosary;  Eucharistic Adoration; and, most of all, in the celebration of the Eucharist in which we give thanks to the Lord our God.  I want you to make a 1% commitment each day – to spend 15 minutes in prayer each day.  There is busyness to my life and your life, but personally I cannot imagine a day going by without being faithful to this 1% commitment.

 In the Stewardship of talent, we share our giftedness with one another.  Suffering and service is the meaning of discipleship of the Lord Jesus.  In all honesty, some of our ministries are under staffed by the community of the baptized.  The purpose of today’s Stewardship Commitment Sunday is to deal with this reality.  We are asking you to make the commitment to be stewards in the building of the Church of the Holy Spirit.  This is our time to walk our talk and continue to build up the vibrancy of our parish life.  When all of us fill out the commitment card, then what is asked of each of us is to do little things with great love in our hearts.   In the wheel house of each of us, there is a humble talent that each one of us can share in the service of one another.

As I said, this means we would like you to fill out a stewardship commitment card and place it in the second collection today.  If you forgot to bring your commitment card with you today, not to worry.  There are extra commitment cards in the pews, we would like to give you a couple of minutes now to prayerfully make this stewardship commitment in the service of one another.

Have a blessed day.