Gospel Reflection: Saturday – 16th Week in Ordinary Time

July 25, 2020
Feast of St. James – the Apostle

Part of the human phenomenon is the aspect of motivation. Everything that man does wittingly or unwittingly, is always done for a reason or purpose. Motivations drive a person to be actively involved in the world, to strive for the best, to become competitive in all endeavors and if possible, to achieve endlessly no matter what it costs. This is how the world moves. It emphasizes the artificial values of progress, development, civility, modernization, technology, convenience, and comfort. But the real motives that are found in their hearts. They are the values of power, profit, and prestige.

You try to ask anyone who wants to enter politics. They would tell you the sweet words of public service. As if serving is reserved only to politics but it is not. What motivates people to serve?

This is one thing very funny with our Gospel reading today. We hear the mother of the two disciples James and John who lobbies on behalf of her sons for a royal post. And then the other ten disciples got mad they were being taken over by the mother and because they too have their ambitions in the royal posts. Jealousy consumes them which eventually reveals their intentions.

But Jesus knows how to handle the situation. He knows that humans as we are, we have an individual craving for success. He knows that we have innate desires for power and prestige. That is why he redirected this motivation to a noble purpose. He said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and give his life for the ransom of many.”

Because of this, St. James’s motives had been purified. Indeed, he served the Lord with utmost humility. In his witness to the faith, he gave up his life for Jesus and the church. He was beheaded by Herod Agrippa around the year 44.

What drives you now? Is it honor, or power, or prestige? I mean, what are the cravings of your heart in serving people?

We are Christians, right? Our model is Jesus. Therefore, our values must be patterned with his values and these values must influence the way we think and the way we serve – in humility.

(Rev. Fr. Urbano Pardillo, DCD; Director, St John Paul II Seminary in Kibanban, Digos City)