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5th Sunday in Lent
Ocala 2004 "He
who would be first among you, shall be a servant to all". This verse was the closing statement of the Lord in today's
Gospel Lesson, when He sought to emphasize the virtue of humility to His
Apostles. In our human reasoning, this may sound somewhat
unreasonable, because, people generally believe, that to become first in
whatever position, you must be the master over all. However, the Lord says, that to
become first, we must be the servant of all. It is teachings of this nature,
that have set Christianity above all other religions, of all time, and surely
above all the philosophical and social systems. This teaching, surely did not make sense to those, who
heard the Lord preach it. I would venture to say, that perhaps it doesn't make
sense even today, with many people in all walks of life. So many people,
set their sights to getto the top at all cost; they will stop at nothing to
achieve their goal. However, the Lord emphasizes, that through humility you
gradually achieve greatness. Since we are only one week away from Holy Week, which
demands humility from all, I would briefly like to center on the virtue of
humility, especially since it has been proven, that vain ambition, egocentric
aspirations, and the lust for glory, power, or position bring about what amounts
to a real degeneration of character. As we heard from today's Gospel, the Lord was proceeding
with His Disciples toward It appears that the
Lord's Disciples were moved very little upon hearing of the events of the
Passion which were to follow. Rather, they selfishly reasoned that the time had
come for them to be rewarded. Two of His Disciples,
James and John came forth and made a specific request, that one would sit on His
right hand and the other on His Left, when He would come into the Glory, which
He had just mentioned to them. Without question, the
Lord must have been shocked upon hearing this unreasonable request and to curb
their foolish and vain ambition He says to them: "He who would be first among you,
shall be a servant to all!" There is no question that
vain ambition is surely catastrophic; not only for the one who is vainly
ambitious, but also for others, who come under the influence of these vainly
ambitious persons. Conversely, sensible ambition and noble aspirations make for
true progress and contribute to uplift society. Without noble ambitions there
could never be true progress. Noble ambitions have the power to increase the
calibre of society. For instance, when a
person, who is elected to govern, and selflessly strives to do his utmost for
the people who put their trust in him, living conditions automatically become
better. Society benefits and
elevates itself, when each citizen aspires to be a useful member of his or her
nation; --- when a Clergyman seeks to become the living example of his flock,
--- when the teacher strives to impart knowledge, without forgetting that the
students also have a spiritual counterpart, their soul, --- when the employer
aspires to be fair to his employees, and visa versa, --- when the Faithful seek to promote the Faith and so on. All
these, and comparable aspirations, are based not on vain ambition, but on the
virtue of humility, which should be our life's cornerstone. All that I just mentioned, and all comparable endeavors,
become fruitful and beneficial to society when noble ambitions come into play. Unfortunately, man is ambitions most of the time for
selfish motives. He seeks importance and power, only to dominate and win the
praises of others. James and John totally ignored the announced suffering and
trials of the Lord, and selfishly asked for thrones of Glory. This is a prime
example of vain or selfish ambition, when we close our eyes, our ears and our
hearts, so that we do not see, or hear the agonizing of our fellow humans! The vainly ambitious person is indeed a detriment, and I
would venture to say, even a danger to his family, to organizations, to the
Community and to society in general. There is nothing sacred for him or her. He
or she has no scruples. We see these people jockeying for position and
recognition whether in our work, in organizations or any aspect of community
life. They seek and very often succeed to attain a position, which demands a
person of sterling character with high moral principles. Thus, society suffers the results, because where we should
have a person with strong moral light power, we experience nothing but the
darkness of the vainly ambitious person. So it is, that when this darkness
prevails, so many will stumble and fall. For this reason, Christianity raises before us the danger
signal to protect us from this great evil of vain or false ambition, along with
so many other evils which humiliate us, and surely estrange us from God, with
the danger of losing one's soul! At all times, but
particularly now, only one week away for the Week of all weeks, when we are
summoned to participate in our Lord's Passion, --- we should make every effort
to free ourselves from any passion, or evil habit, which keeps us earthbound. Moreover, we are called
to fortify our soul with the supreme Christian virtues, which are steadfastly
founded on humility. May I cite an unique example of this humility? Our Lord,
the Lord of all the Universe, washed the feet of His Disciples shortly before
the Passion, in order that He could impress upon all the breadth and depth of
humility. What a beautiful society
we would be inhabiting, if, instead of people striving to be first, they would
place Christ our Lord as primary in their life and in all endeavors. If we would truly permit
Christ to rule in our hearts, we surely would have the guarantee, that there
would be no problem we could not handle, simply because, our hearts would be
overflowing with love, with peace, and a basic desire for all that is fine,
supreme and lofty. This is what so many
Christians desire, but we know that this state cannot be achieved automatically.
Like any noble project we must diligently apply ourselves. It takes much
self-discipline, and if we are successful in completely disciplining ourselves,
we most assuredly will have given real substance to the great virtue of
humility. Never forget our Lord's
words: "He who humbles himself
shall be exalted, and he who exalts himself shall be abased." |
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