Twenty-Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time
October 22, 2006


How strong is your grip?

If you have ever been around a new born child, you know this reaction. If you take your finger or your thumb, and place it in the palm of that child’s hand, that child instinctively will grab on to your finger/thumb. They will grip that finger tightly in their hand and will not let go of it easily. It seems that as human beings we are wired to grip things physically. It also seems to me that we are wired to grip things on the spiritual and emotional level. It is not hard for us to find something the wrap our hearts around and not let go of. It is easy to have a strong grip on many things in our lives.

Jesus, it seems, must have known this truth. For when James and John approach Jesus, (show silver spoon) they have their hands grasping firmly on a silver spoon. Having just heard Jesus THREE TIMES saying he is going to suffer and die, they come to him with the request – when you die, when you enter your kingdom, make sure that we have seats, one at your right and the other at your left. Make sure that we live by the silver spoon. Make sure that we are popular and influential and have to power to get things done. Make sure it is the GOOD LIFE for us, the silver spoon of living that is ours.

Jesus had to have been frustrated. But rather than throwing in the towel, Jesus responds gently, yet compellingly. “You know how the leaders of the Gentiles lord it over others, making their importance felt. It shall not be that way with you.” It shall not be that way with you… If you want to be my follower, you are going to have to grasp something different than the silver spoon.

In effect, he says to the twelve, if you want to be my disciple pick up a towel and those scrubby bubbles. (show towel and foaming toilet spray can.) This is what you have to wrap your hands around. I worked some summers at my home parish, our Lady of Providence, cleaning, scrubbing, painting the school. If have to tell you, it is almost impossible to think of yourself as something special while you are scrubbing toilets. People in the world all seem pretty much the same when you are cleaning a toilet. Those summers were the best training I received in preparation for the priesthood/discipleship. You see, the servant mentality expects to put the needs of others first. It anticipates giving before receiving. You are not bent out of shape when a sacrifice is asked.

You see, the son of man has come, not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as ransom for many. And if we want to be his follower, then somehow, our lives have to mimic his. So, if you want to know what it means to be a follower of Jesus – loose the spoon. It is all about the choice to grasp tightly the towel and the scrubby bubbles.

The son of man has come, not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as ransom for many. Those are words spoken from the depths of a man who knew what it was to be a servant. Who knew poverty at his birth, who knew what it was to serve a crowd of people who demanded his time and energy and talent. Who knew how to serve others without tiring, because he kept being energized for that mission by spending time with the source of his blessings – His Father. Deepest in his being, he chose again and again the path of servanthood.

Babies teach us that we instinctively wrap our fingers and our hearts around many things. What will it be for you: the silver spoon or the scrubby bubbles?