I write for a site that publishes reflections on the readings of the day and I don't usually reprint these elsewhere because I don't want to seem to be tooting my own horn. Many times I write the reflections and they vanish from my mind as I write them. If someone e-mails me about one that touched them, I have to go and find it again to see what was written.
However, this one stuck with me because I obviously needed the message desperately. I still need the message and so, as a more or less permanent record, I publish it here because I will collect it again in time. May it be of service to you as well.
Whoever wishes to be great among you, shall be your servant . . . . (see Matthew 20:26)
The only greatness that matters is not the ability to lord it over other people, but rather the ability to put oneself aside and serve completely. This greatness is so obvious that too often people cannot notice it.
Think about how difficult it is sometimes to make even the smallest sacrifice--five minutes to listen to the story of a child, a minute to console a co-worker during a rush to job completion, a dollar to a person who has nothing. Sometimes we do these things willingly, easily. But more often than not every demand upon time and resources is a demand.
To be a servant, to give willingly and unstintingly, to be completely at another's call--that is strength, that is greatness. The ability to set oneself to the side and to move forward helping others--it's hard to think of a greatness that could exceed that.
To be truly great, to be great as it really matters to God and to the rest of the world, we must be exceedingly small. Jesus completely emptied Himself on the cross, of dignity, of everything. When we ask for help to put ourselves aside and serve the needs of others, we imitate Jesus.
When we say, "Not my will, but Thy will," we are true disciples. A tower of strength is not the person who stands up for him or her self, but the person who stands up for others, serving them completely.
