Gospel: Matthew 20: 17-28
We human beings love ranking things and giving priority to some things over others. Follow a football season from week to week and watch the prognosticators rank football teams. See how ever-changing these things are, so passing one's influence in the world. And yet we are obsessed with it, hoping for such influence ourselves, all the while knowing it is an illusion and a false god.
At the very eve of Jesus' execution the disciples, knowing he is to die, find nothing else more important than to argue about their own power. Anyone remotely familiar with church like is all too familiar with such a scene. Little wonder people take the claims of Christianity as irrelevant when its adherents do so little to live as Jesus lived and as he encouraged his followers to do. Little wonder religion is on the decline in our world...
That so many ignore Jesus' word and example provides an even greater emphasis on those who do. To meet someone not enamored of the fineries of religious garb, one who serves the needs of others in silence and humility, one who takes the example of Jesus seriously - these are inspiring people. We won't find them in religious media empires or chanceries. We will find them on streets, in hospital wards, prison halls, soup kitchens, and shelters for refugees.
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