Mohamed Ali, the one-time heavy weight champion would often
boast, "I am the greatest!", and people believed he was. We may not
openly claim to be the greatest in any particular field but deep down we like
to feel that we are on the top, we belong to the elite, second to none. We all
play the power game in one way or another and much of our behaviour is aimed at
asserting: "I am No.1!" For that matter, who is the greatest in the
Kingdom of God? Is my life running on man-power or God's power? May His
word challenge us to be powerless in His Kingdom.
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Reflection |
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The first reading from the book of Wisdom reminds us that
often the just man has to endure suffering not because he has done evil, not
because he has sinned but precisely because He is walking the path of
justice, the path of truth, and the path of God. Because of his upright life
others feel threatened, others feel uncomfortable, others feel guilty and
challenged and so they retaliate, they hit out at the just person who stands
for God and His values. When we are put to the test do we resort to proving
how tough we are, or are we ready to accept our powerlessness so that God can
reveal His power and presence in our lives? True Greatness King Oscar II, monarch of Sweden and Norway at the turn of
the century, enjoyed visiting schools and talking informally to the pupils.
Calling on a village school one day, the king asked the pupils to name the
greatest kings of Sweden. The answers were unanimous: Gustavus Vasa, Gustavus
Adolphus, Charles XII. The teacher was embarrassed with the response so she
leaned over to one little boy and whispered something in his ear. "And
King Oscar," proclaimed the child. "Really? And what has King Oscar
done that is so remarkable?" asked the King. " I-I-I don't
know." stammered the confused child. "That's all right, my
boy," said the king. "Neither do I." Denis McBride In the Gospel, as they come down the mountain, Jesus tells
his disciples that he will have to suffer, be handed over and put to death.
But the disciples do not want to understand what Jesus is speaking about.
While Jesus is talking of being powerless in the face of suffering and death,
they are talking of who among them is the greatest of all! For the apostles
and maybe for us what matters is power, to show, to exercise authority, to
make known who is the boss. For Jesus what mattered was the power to submit
to God's will, the power to submit to others, to trust in His Father's power
rather than his own. To drive the point home, Jesus says, "If you want
to be first in God's kingdom, first in God's eyes, you have to be ready to be
last of all, to be servant of all." The disciples still do not
understand the point that Jesus is trying to make; so Jesus takes a little
child present, sets him in the centre and says to his disciples: "Anyone
who welcomes one of these little children in my name, welcomes me, and anyone
who welcomes me, welcomes not me but the one who sent me." What is the
point Jesus is making through this enigmatic statement? Why did Jesus use a
little child? In the time of Jesus the child had no rights till it grew up to
be an adult. Yet God came to us in the form of a child, totally dependent on
others. Jesus in today's Gospel once again affirms his readiness to give up
all power, to submit to suffering, to submit to death itself, the ultimate
loss of the power of life. In embracing the child, Jesus is embracing
weakness, is affirming his choice of being on the side of the powerless, who
believe not in their own strength but rely totally in the power of God. Are
we ready to embrace our weakness to experience His power in our lives? Peter said: "Of course without doubt, I am the most
important! Didn't he call me the rock on which that community of his is going
to be built?" John said: "I am sorry for you. What you say might be
true, but that is only a question of administrative bureaucracy. The fact
that you might be a good administrator does not make you the most important
one. You should look for something else. You should be attentive to something
more important. You should look for his love, and if you do that, well, he
loved me most." Then Judas spoke: He said: "The most important
fellow is the man with the money. You don't need to be a Marxist or a
capitalist to know that. The world is ruled by money, and to whom did he
entrust his money? To me, and that is why…" Phillip spoke: "All
that is very nice. Do you remember when he had that catering problem in the
desert with all those thousands, when nobody knew what to do, him included?
He turned to me for advice. I am sorry for you but he asked me!"Joseph
G. Donders Servant of All Dr. Charles Mayo with his father and brother founded the
famous Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. One time a group of European
medical experts were guests of Dr. Mayo at his home. According to the custom
of their homeland the guests placed their shoes outside their bedroom doors
to be polished during the night. Dr. Charles was the last to retire. As he
went to his room he noticed the shoes. It was too late to wake up any of the
servants. With a sigh he gathered up all the footwear, hauled them into the kitchen,
and spent half the night polishing them. Msgr. Arthur Tonne There is a legend told about Abraham in the Mideast.
According to the legend, he always held off eating his breakfast each morning
until a hungry man came along to share it with him. One day an old man came
along, and of course Abraham invited him to share his breakfast with him.
However when Abraham heard the old man say a pagan blessing over the food, he
jumped up and ordered the old man from his table and from his house. Almost
immediately, God spoke to Abraham. "Abraham! Abraham! I have been supplying
that unbeliever with food every day for the past eighty years. Could you not
have tolerated him for just one meal?" We are all children of God. God
has no grandchildren! Jack McArdle When Nelson Mandela was a student lawyer in Johannesburg
he had a friend whose name was Paul Mahabane. Mahabane was a member of the
African National Congress (ANC), and had the reputation of being a radical.
One day the two of them were standing outside a post office when the local
magistrate, a white man in his sixties, approached Mahabane and asked him to
go buy him some stamps. It was quite common in those days for a white person
to call on a black person to perform a chore. Paul refused. The magistrate was
offended. "Do you know who I am?" he said, his face turning red
with anger. "It is not necessary to know who you are," Mahabane
replied. "I know what you are." The magistrate boiled over and
exclaimed, "You'll pay dearly for this," and then walked away. That
white man was convinced that he was superior to Mahabane simply because he
was a magistrate. And it had become second nature to him to expect others,
especially if they were black, to serve him. Flor McCarthy Today one of the games most people play is one-upmanship.
Everyone seems to want to reach the top to show others that they have made it
and that they are better than others. To prove that they are better than
others, people go to great lengths to prove their superiority. Greatness is
equated with strength and power. But often, it is the weak and insecure who
display their power to hide their weakness. Jesus reveals that the least is
the greatest in God’s eyes! In fact while Jesus is talking of being powerless in the
face of suffering and death, they are talking of who is the greatest of all!
Here we have a confrontation of values and life styles. For Jesus what
mattered was real power: the power to submit to God’s will, the power to
submit to others, not to exercise power but to be helpless and trust in His
Father’s power rather than his own. What is the point Jesus is making through this enigmatic
statement? Jesus in today’s Gospel once again affirms his readiness to give
up all power, to submit to death itself, the ultimate loss of the power of
life. In embracing the child, Jesus is embracing weakness, is affirming his
choice of being on the side of the powerless, who believe not in their own
strength but rely totally in the power of God. Are we ready to embrace
weakness to experience His power in our lives? Dr Charles Mayo, with his father and brother founded the
world famous Mayo Clinic in Rochester. One time a group of European medical
experts were guests of Dr Mayo at his home. According to the custom, the
guests placed their shoes outside their bedrooms to be polished during the
night. Dr Charles was the last to retire. As he went to his room he noticed
the shoes. It was too late to wake up any of the servants. With a sigh he
gathered up all the footwear, hauled them into the kitchen, and spent half the
night polishing them. From Fr. Tony Kadavil: 1) “The most powerful woman in the world!" At the screening of the film Mother Teresa during the celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the United Nations in 1983, the Secretary General, Javier Perez de Cuellar, rose from his seat to introduce Mother Teresa to an elite gathering of the representatives of all member countries of the U.N. He needed only one sentence for his introduction: "I present to you the most powerful woman in the world!" Hers was the power of humble, sacrificial, Christian service and agape love! On March 3, 1976, conferring on Mother Teresa the highest honor of India’s Vishwa Bharati University, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, who was at that time Prime Minister of India, said: “I feel myself dwarfed when I stand before this holy and mighty woman who heroically showed the world how to practice Christian love in sacrificial and humble service.” For many years, the world watched, admired and honored this weak and elderly nun, always dressed in a blue- bordered white sari, as the incarnation of humble and sacrificing Christian service. She was the living proof of Jesus' words in today’s gospel that real greatness lies in serving others. She served all with love and compassion. From 1962 onwards, she received national and international awards in recognition of her greatness, attained through the humble service done to the “poorest of the poor.” On Sept. 5, 1997, the day of the death of this holy woman who lived with us, practicing what Jesus commanded his apostles in today’s gospel, Pope John Paul II said: “Mother Teresa marked the history of our century with courage. She served all human beings by promoting their dignity and respect, making them feel the tenderness of God.” 2) “She could have jumped.” There was a story a number of years ago that was carried in the newspapers and in Time magazine. Mary Frances "Frankie" Housley (October 12, 1926 –
January 14, 1951) was the lone stewardess on National Airlines flight 83 which crashed after landing at Philadelphia Airport in January, 1951. Frankie Housley had made 10 trips into that burning plane... to help passengers get out. As soon as she had finished getting all of the passengers to safety Housley also started to jump from the plane. But just before she made her escape, a passenger on the ground screamed, “My baby, my baby!” Flight attendant Mary Housley turned back into the plane to find the baby, and that was the last time anyone saw her alive. She died in the attempt to save the baby, and rescue workers found her charred body holding the four-month-old baby in her arms. The story of her courage made national headlines, including an item in Time magazine. ("Take Your Time," Time (Jan. 22, 1951). One passenger called her a "real heroine." A congressman labeled her the bravest American in history. Today’s gospel challenges Christians to serve others with Frankie,s dedication and sacrificial commitment. 3) MBA – Mop Bucket Attitude: .
At Wendy's, he says, MBA doesn't mean Master of Business Administration. 4) Remember potato
salad and jokes: Tony Campolo, used to
say, "If you ever start to
feel proud, thinking that you are somebody
great, just remember that soon after your body
has been lowered into the
grave, your family & friends will
be eating potato salad and telling jokes, and
you’ll be history." 5) The humble pastor: Did you hear about the pastor who prepared a
great message on humility. But he was waiting for a bigger
congregation to preach the sermon to! Another pastor was
given an award for humility. A week later, the
congregation took the award back because the pastor displayed it in
his office! 6) A horrible mistake: “Father, I have a besetting sin, and I
want your help. I come to church on Sunday and can’t help
thinking I’m the prettiest girl in the congregation. I
know I ought not think that, but I
can’t help it. I want you to help me with it." The pastor
replied, "Mary, don’t worry about it. In your case it’s not a sin. It’s
just a horrible mistake." 7) Prime minister’s humility: Winston Churchill was once asked, "Doesn’t it thrill
you to know that every time
you make a
speech, the hall is packed to
overflowing?" "It’s quite flattering," replied Sir Winston.
"But whenever I feel that
way, I always remember that if
instead of making a political speech I were
being hanged, the crowd would be twice as big." 8) More My Size! George Washington Carver, the scientist who developed
hundreds of useful products from the peanut: “When I was young, I said to God, ‘God, tell me the mystery of the universe.’ But God
answered, ‘That knowledge is reserved for me alone.’ So I said, ‘God, tell
me the mystery of the peanut.’ Then God said, ‘Well, George, that’s
more nearly your size.’ And He told me.” 9) Clothed with Humility The word "humility" means literally a low estimate
of self. But this does not imply self-deprecation. When you hear someone
deprecating himself, usually you can put it down as a sort of counterfeit
humility. Someone has said, "The true way to be humble is not to stoop
until you are smaller than yourself, but to stand at your full height before
some higher nature that will show you how small your greatness is."
"Walk humbly with thy God." Here is where we learn true humility.
Walking with God, seeing ourselves by the side of His greatness, we see how
little we are. And seeing how little we are is the first step toward becoming
what we can and ought to be. We never become truly great, we never do our best work until
we are "clothed with humility"; until, like our Lord and Savior, we
are willing to live to serve others. John R. Gunn 10) The Ambitious Disciples Jesus and his disciples were coming to the town of
Capernaum. As they entered the house where they would be staying, he asked his
disciples, "What were you arguing about on the road?" But they kept
quiet, says the writer of Mark's Gospel, because on the way they had argued
about who was number one among them. So, the disciples were human just like you and I are human.
Who doesn't want to stand out? Some of the greatest people who have ever lived
were also among the most ambitious. It is said that Michelangelo prayed: "Lord, grant that
I may always desire more than I can accomplish." Having an African-American president reminds us of other
people of color who have succeeded against even greater odds. They, too, were
driven to succeed. Who can help but be impressed by the accomplishments, for
example, of George Washington Carver? Carver was born to an African slave
mother. He never knew his father. But he wanted to make a difference in the
world, and he did! Carver became one the greatest scientists in American
history. The disciples were human beings. They wanted their names to
be in lights just as you and I want to stand out from our peers. There is
nothing wrong with that as long it does not cause us to mistreat others or
betray our values. My guess is Jesus wanted them to be ambitious because
ambitious people get things done. He just wanted them to be ambitious in the
right way. King Duncan, He that is down needs fear no fall, He that is low, no pride: He that is humble ever shall Have God to be his guide. From the Song of the Shepherd Boy, The Pilgrim's Progress by
John Bunyan 11) Passing by the Children A persistent judgment leveled against parents today is this:
they gladly provide their children with every resource: Leaders, coaches,
teachers, tutors, and youth workers. Certainly children should be happy and
well-adjusted. They have everything money can buy. But they do not have the
listening ear of Mom and Dad. "Too busy, later, not now, I'm working hard
for your good." Recall the old saying: "For the want of a
nail the shoe was lost; for the want of a shoe
the horse was lost; It is still true. For want of a quiet, caring intimacy, a
child's primary sense of self-worth is lost. And for want of security and
self-worth, the child is lost. In most churches I've known, members find it
quite easy to pass a youth by; they are more timid to engage a child than a
stranger in conversation. Frequently, when youth are on committees, little
sensitivity is expressed toward making them comfortable and enabling them to
contribute. Thomas Peterson The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The
superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires. William A. Ward 13) Carry Someone with You There was a tribe of Indians who lived a long time ago in
the state of Mississippi. They lived next to a very swift and dangerous river.
The current was so strong that if somebody happened to fall in or stumbled into
it they could be swept away downstream. One day the tribe was attacked by a hostile group of
settlers. They found themselves with their backs against the river. They were
greatly outnumbered and their only chance for escape was to cross the rushing
river. They huddled together and those who were strong picked up the weak and
put them on their shoulders; the little children, the sick, the old and the
infirm, those who were ill or wounded were carried on the backs of those who
were strongest. They waded out into the river, and to their surprise they
discovered that the weight on their shoulders carrying the least and the lowest
helped them to keep their footing and to make it safely across the river. Jesus is trying to teach the disciples an object lesson
about greatness, about servanthood, about leadership. He is saying to them and
to us, "Have you lost the childlike joy and love and faith that once were
yours?" He is also saying to them and to us, "If you want to walk on
secure ground in this world it helps to carry someone with you." King
Duncan **** From Fr. Tony Kadavil: Twelve Additional anecdotes: 1) “There are no professionals in dying.” In
George Seaton’s film The Proud and the Profane, the steps of a
young nurse are traced to a place called Iwo Jima where her
husband had been killed in World War II. She goes to the cemetery where
her husband lies buried and turns to the caretaker, a shell-shocked soldier,
who had seen her husband die. “How did he die?” she asks. “Like an
amateur,” he replies. “They teach you how to hurl a grenade and how to
fire a mortar, but nobody teaches you how to die. There are no
professionals in dying.” Most of us avoid the subject of death. It’s a
taboo subject. We pretend that we are going to live forever. But
the only way we can keep up that pretense is through massive denial.
Woody Allen said, “When I die, all I want is just a few of my good friends to
gather around the casket and do everything in their power to bring me back to
life.” Everyone dies – that we can accept. But somehow, we think we
will be the exception. Jesus knew of the innate fear in the heart of the
disciples concerning death, — his death and theirs. Jesus also knew that
they would all pay a terrible price for their future ministry. So, in
today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches the apostles that he is going to become the
Messiah by his death and Resurrection. 2) Beethoven’s Piano: On a visit to the
Beethoven museum in Bonn, a young American student became fascinated by the
piano on which Beethoven had composed some of his greatest works. She asked the
museum guard if she could play a few bars on it; she accompanied the request
with a lavish tip, and the guard agreed. The girl went to the piano and tinkled
out the opening of the “Moonlight Sonata.” As she was leaving she said to the
guard, “I suppose all the great pianists who come here want to play on that
piano.” The guard shook his head. “Paderewski [the famed Polish pianist] was
here a few years ago, and he said he wasn’t worthy to touch it.” 3) “Baby, tell me what God feels like.” Soon
after the birth of her brother, four-year-old Sachi began to ask her parents to
leave her alone with the new baby. Worried that she might feel jealous and want
to hit and shake the newborn, her parents said no. But the little girl’s pleas
to be left alone with her brother became more urgent, and since she treated the
baby lovingly and gently, her parents decided to allow it. Delighted, Sachi
went into the baby’s room and closed the door, but it opened slightly, allowing
her curious parents to peek in and listen. They watched as their daughter put
her face close to her baby brother’s and whisper, “Baby, tell me what God feels
like. I’m starting to forget.” (Dan Millman, Chicken Soup For the Soul,
Health Communications, Inc., Deerfield Beach, FL: 1993). The innocence of this
little four-year-old-girl is disarming, particularly to adults grown crusty and
cynical with age. When Jesus recommended that his disciples emulate the little
child that he set in their midst, he reminded them of the innocence that they
had long since outgrown. Indeed, their innocence had been replaced by ambition
as to who was most important among them. By offering the example of the child
and by calling them to be the servant of all, Jesus challenged them to rethink
their attitude toward him, toward God and toward one another. Those who would
rank first among them as leader must become the least among them. (Sanchez
files). 4) “Franz Josef, a poor sinner in need of the mercy
of God”—This is a story that I have often heard told in various forms over
the years, and that I recently had the opportunity to verify in person during a
visit to the Franciscan Church in Vienna: For 900 years, members of the mighty
Hapsburg dynasty ruled over large parts of Central and Eastern Europe—an area
that would sometimes be known as the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The majority of
the Hapsburg rulers (including the last reigning Hapsburg, the Empress Zita,
who died in 1989) are buried in the subterranean crypt of a Church (the Kapuzinergruft)
run by the Capuchin order of Franciscan monks (the crowned skull at left is
part of one of the Hapsburg coffins). Hapsburg funerals were distinguished by a
particularly solemn and evocative ritual. As the funeral procession approached
the (closed) Church doors, an imperial dignitary would knock and seek
admittance. “Who is it who seeks entrance?” a monk would call out from within
the Church. “It is His Royal Highness, Franz Josef, by the grace of God Emperor
of Austria and Hungary,” the dignitary would answer; the monk would reply, “I
do not know him”. A second time, the dignitary would knock, and a second time
the monk inside would ask who sought entry to the Church. “His Serene Majesty,
the King of Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia and Galicia, the Protector of
Jerusalem and the Grand Duke of Tuscany and Krakow…” (the list included more
than 30 titles)—to which the monk again replied, “I do not know him”. A third
and final time, the official knocked on the doors, and the monk once more asked
the identity of the person seeking admission to the church. This time, however,
the official answered humbly, “Franz Josef, a poor sinner in need of the mercy
of God”—at which point the doors of the Church were swung open, and the funeral
procession was allowed to enter, and the Requiem Mass could begin. Father Gerry
Pierse, CSsR; The model of greatness in the kingdom of God, presented by
Jesus in today’s Gospel, is the powerless child. 5) Persecution of the just: Elie Wiesel,
Jewish writer and Nobel Peace Prize winner tells a disturbing story in one of
his books about Auschwitz. As soon as children arrived by train at Auschwitz,
together with the elderly and the sick, they were immediately selected for the
gas chamber. On one occasion a group of children were left to wait by
themselves for the next day. A man asked the guards if he could stay with the
children during their last night on earth. Surprisingly, his request was
granted. How did they spend that last night? He started off by telling them
stories in an effort to cheer them up. However, instead of cheering them up, he
only succeeded in making them cry. So, what did they do? They cried together
till daybreak. Then he accompanied the little ones to the gas chamber.
Afterwards he returned to the prison yard to report to work. When the guards
saw him, they burst out laughing. -The story has most of the ingredients of our
reading. In it we see the brazenness of the evil-doers, the persecution of the
innocent, and the apparent triumph of evil, which is the subject of the first
reading. The man’s heroic act of service towards the little ones shines out in
the darkness of Auschwitz. He risked his life to befriend the little ones. He
had no answers to give them, no salvation to offer them. All he could do was
suffer with them and accompany them on their last journey. Though he was an
ordinary person with no rank or status of any kind, he was undoubtedly the
greatest person in that sad place on that sad occasion. What made him great was
his goodness. (Flor McCarthy in Sunday and Holy Day Liturgies; quoted by Fr.
Botelho). 6) “If you had not gone to feed the people, I would have
left!”(Story for children): 1: A story is told about a
Monk who longed to see Jesus in person, and who prayed every day that Jesus
would appear to him. Each day he prepared a meal for the many hungry people who
came to the gate of his monastery. Then one day, as he was about to serve
a meal to the hungry people, Jesus appeared to him in the kitchen.
At that moment, the bell at the gate rang, telling the monk that
the hungry people had arrived. The monk was in a real dilemma: should he
stay and speak with Jesus or go and serve the hungry people. The
bell rang again, and the monk quickly made up his mind. He hurried to the
gate and served the meal he had prepared. When he had finished, he
was saddened by the thought that he had turned his back on Jesus. When he
returned to the kitchen, however, he found Jesus there waiting for him.
“Lord,” he said, “I thought that you would have left when I went to feed
the people.” “No,” Jesus replied, “If you had not gone to feed the
people, I would have left!” 7) “I cannot lift my arms or bend my knees.” Once
upon a time there was a squire who longed to be a knight. He wanted to serve
his king and be the most honorable and noble knight who ever lived. At his
knighting he was so overcome by dedication that he made a special oath. He
vowed to bow his knees and lift his arms in homage to his king and him alone.
This knight was given the task of guarding a city on the frontier of the
kingdom. Every day he stood at attention by the gate of the city in full armor.
Years passed. One day as he was standing at attention guarding his post, a
peasant woman passed by with goods for the market. Her cart turned over
spilling potatoes and carrots and onions everywhere. The woman hurried to get
them all back in her cart. But the knight wouldn’t help the poor woman. He just
stood at attention lest he break his vow by bending his knees to help pick up
the woman’s goods. Time passed and one day a man with one leg was passing by
and his crutch broke. “Please help me noble knight,” he requested. “Reach down
and help me up.” But the knight would not stoop or lift a hand to help lest he
break his vow. Years and decades passed, the knight was getting old. One day
his grandson came by and said, “Grandpa pick me up and take me to the fair.”
But he would not stoop lest he break his vow to the king. Finally, after years
the king came to visit and inspect the knight. As the king approached the
knight stood there at attention. The king inspected him but noticed
that the knight was crying. “You are one of the noblest knights I have ever seen
why you are crying?” “Your majesty, I took a vow that I would bow
and lift my arms in homage to you, but I am unable to keep my vow. These years
have done their work and the joints of my armor are rusted. I cannot lift my
arms or bend my knees.” With the loving voice of a parent the King
replied, “Perhaps if you had knelt to help all those who passed by and lifted
your arms to embrace all those who came to you, you would have been able to
keep your vow to pay me homage today.” Do you want to be God’s number
one? Then practice stooping. Practice the art of humility. Reach down to give a
hand to someone in need. Sacrifice your wants for the needs of another. 8) Episcopal careerism vs child-like
innocence: Father John R. Donahue, (www.americamagazine.org): The
Gospel reminds the Church today of the dangers of ambition and posturing for
positions of power. In recent years the genie of ecclesiastical ambition has
been again let out of the bottle, so much so that Cardinal Gantin, dean of the
College of Cardinals and former prefect of the Congregation for Bishops,
deplored episcopal careerism and said he was shocked by bishops seeking
promotion from smaller to larger dioceses (America 6/19/99), a view
echoed two months later by Cardinal Ratzinger … Yet the pilgrim Church of God’s
people continues the work of justice, and the unprotected and vulnerable are
welcomed and protected. Jesus has many unnamed companions today as he follows
the path of self-giving for others that leads through death to resurrection.
Only humility exalts. (Geneva Notes). 9) True Greatness: King Oscar II, monarch
of Sweden and Norway at the turn of the century, enjoyed visiting schools and
talking informally to the pupils. Calling on a village school one day, the king
asked the pupils to name the greatest kings of Sweden. The answers were unanimous:
Gustavus Vasa, Gustavus Adolphus, Charles XII. The teacher was embarrassed with
the response, so she leaned over to one little boy and whispered something in
his ear. “And King Oscar,” proclaimed the child. “Really? And what has King
Oscar done that is so remarkable?” asked the King. ” I-I-I don’t know.”
stammered the confused child. “That’s all right, my boy,” said the king.
“Neither do I.” (Denis McBride; quoted by Fr. Botelho). 10) All God’s Children: There is a legend
told about Abraham in the Mideast. According to the legend, he always held off
eating his breakfast each morning until a hungry man came along to share it
with him. One day an old man came along, and of course Abraham invited him to
share his breakfast with him. However, when Abraham heard the old man say a
pagan blessing over the food, he jumped up and ordered the old man from his
table and from his house. Almost immediately, God spoke to Abraham. “Abraham!
Abraham! I have been supplying that unbeliever with food every day for the past
eighty years. Could you not have tolerated him for just one meal?” We are all
children of God. God has no grandchildren! (Jack McArdle in And that’s the
Gospel Truth; quoted by Fr. Botelho). 11) “Do you know who I am?”: When Nelson Mandela
was a student lawyer in Johannesburg he had a friend whose name was Paul
Mahabane. Mahabane was a member of the African National Congress (ANC), and had
the reputation of being a radical. One day the two of them were standing
outside a post office when the local magistrate, a white man in his sixties,
approached Mahabane and asked him to go buy him some stamps. It was quite
common in those days for a white person to call on a black person to perform a
chore. Paul refused. The magistrate was offended. “Do you know who I am?” he
said, his face turning red with anger. “It is not necessary to know who you
are,” Mahabane replied. “I know what you are.” The magistrate boiled over and
exclaimed, “You’ll pay dearly for this,” and then walked away. That white man
was convinced that he was superior to Mahabane simply because he was a
magistrate. And it had become second nature to him to expect others, especially
if they were black, to serve him, ignoring the fact that both were God’s
children. (Flor McCarthy in New Sunday and Holy Day Liturgies; quoted by Fr.
Botelho). 12) “It can be hard work at times, but I enjoy it.”
In Ireland, foster care is the preferred option for children and young
people in care. Foster families open their homes to a child or young
person who comes to live with them. This can be for
a short time until the birth families are in a position to
provide safe care for their child, or in some circumstances
children/young people will need to be in care for a longer period of
time. There was a woman in Dublin who in 1988 started short-term fostering –she
works for a Catholic Adoption Agency. She receives the baby when he/she is two
or three days old, and usually has the baby for three months. Then the baby is
taken back by the natural mother, or adopted, or goes to long-term fostering.
This dear woman, by no means well-off, has fostered in a short time, over forty
babies. She says, “It can be hard work at times, but I enjoy it.” She
enjoys it because she does it with love. “Anyone who welcomes one of these
little children, welcomes Me”, would be a fitting epitaph of her
life. (Flor McCarthy, New Sundays and Holy Day Liturgies; quoted by Fr.
Botelho). JOKES OF THE WEEK # 1: Remember potato salad and jokes: Tony
Campolo, used to say, “If you ever start to feel proud, thinking that you are
somebody great, just remember that soon after your body has been lowered into
the grave, your family & friends will be eating potato salad & telling
jokes, & you’ll be history.” # 2: More My Size! George Washington Carver, the
scientist who developed hundreds of useful products from the peanut: “When I
was young, I said to God, ‘God, tell me the mystery of the universe.’ But God
answered, ‘That knowledge is reserved for me alone.’ So, I said, ‘God, tell me
the mystery of the peanut.’ Then God said, ‘Well, George, that’s more nearly
your size.’ And he told me.” # 3: A horrible mistake: Father, I have a
besetting sin, and I want your help. I come to church on Sunday and can’t help
thinking I’m the prettiest girl in the congregation. I know I ought not think
that, but I can’t help it. I want you to help me with it.” The pastor replied,
“Mary, don’t worry about it. In your case it’s not a sin. It’s just a horrible
mistake.” #4: Prime minister’s humility: Winston Churchill
was once asked, “Doesn’t it thrill you to know that every time you make a
speech, the hall is packed to overflowing?” “It’s quite flattering,” replied
Sir Winston. “But whenever I feel that way, I always remember that if instead of
making a political speech I was being hanged, the crowd would be twice as big.” #5: I am proud of my humility: Do you have humility like the man who wrote the best-selling books, Humility and Humility and How I Attained It and The Ten Most Humble Men in the World and How I Chose the Other Nine? # 6: Remember this old Sunday school song containing the basic servant-living theology: J.O.Y., J.O. Y. Tell you what it means: Jesus first, yourself last, and others in between.
# 7: The humble pastor: Did you hear
about the pastor who prepared a great message on humility. But he was
waiting for a bigger congregation to preach the
sermon to! Another pastor was given an award for humility. A week
later, the congregation took the award back because the pastor displayed it in
his office! |
