Jesus' School of Servant Leadership

July 25, 2018: Remembering St. James

2 Cor 4: 7-15; Mt 20: 20-28

Feast of any Apostle reminds us of the wonderful words that St. Paul utters today: "we hold this treasure in earthen vessels". Every apostle has his own weakness, nevertheless the gift that they are and that they possess, surpasses everything as God's power and might is revealed in it.

Feast of St. James (with the Gospel that we are given to reflect today) reminds us of this more strongly and adds another specific teaching, a teaching from Jesus' School of Servant Leadership. In Matthew's and Mark's versions of the Gospel, we find every time that Jesus foretells about his passion, he follows it up with the discourse on servant leadership (as we see in Mt 16:24ff; 18:1ff; 20:20ff). James and John took time to realise that the only thing we can inherit from Jesus is his identity as Suffering Servant!

Eventually they wanted to bear the crown that Jesus mentioned and that is what they did. James led the community of Jerusalem... humble and service minded as the Master himself; and his blood shed like the Master's (Acts 12:2). Let us praise the Lord for the apostle St. James and be prepared to witness to the Lord till our last breath!

Mercy and Faithfulness

Tuesday,  16th week in Ordinary Time 

Mic 7: 14-15,18-20; Mt 12: 46-50a

The message that enlightened us on Sunday, continues through the week too...calling our attention to the faithfulness of the Shepherd who has committed himself to our good, without measure or without limits. The most concrete expression of God's faithfulness is God's mercy which is so boundless and plentiful. 

We are called to be merciful too: be merciful as your heavenly father is merciful, instructed us Jesus once. Our concrete way of living out mercy is being faithful to the biddings of the Lord. Being faithful to the biddings of the Lord would consist of being attentive to everything around me, being truly concerned about everyone around me and being open to the promptings of the Spirit within me.

Mercy is not about doing some charitable acts here and there and now and then. But it is becoming like God, growing in our godliness and being signs of God's faithfulness to those who are in need of it. Being God's presence to those around us, especially those who need it the most, who need it badly, who depend on it for their sustenance. 

The starting point of growing merciful, that is growing up to be like God, is to listen to the Lord and do what the Lord wants of us. That is the only way we can grow to be children of God and become truly brothers and sisters of the Son of God, our brother Jesus Christ.