When we face our maker, we will not be asked, 'How many positions did you hold,' but rather, 'How many people did you help?”

”We are made for this, that we may be good, and serve our Maker; when we act against His precepts, we act against Nature.”- Saint Paulinus: (354 – 431: was a Roman poet, scriptor, and senator)

Gospel Text: (MK 10:32-45)

The disciples were on the way, going up to Jerusalem,

and Jesus went ahead of them.

They were amazed, and those who followed were afraid.

Taking the Twelve aside again, he began to tell them

what was going to happen to him.

“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man

will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes,

and they will condemn him to death

and hand him over to the Gentiles who will mock him,

spit upon him, scourge him, and put him to death,

but after three days he will rise.”

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee,

came to Jesus and said to him,

“Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”

He replied, “What do you wish me to do for you?”

They answered him,

“Grant that in your glory

we may sit one at your right and the other at your left.”

Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking.

Can you drink the chalice that I drink

or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”

They said to him, “We can.”

Jesus said to them, “The chalice that I drink, you will drink,

and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized;

but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give

but is for those for whom it has been prepared.”

When the ten heard this, they became indignant at James and John.

Jesus summoned them and said to them,

“You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles

lord it over them,

and their great ones make their authority over them felt.

But it shall not be so among you.

Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant;

whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.

For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve

and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Some of us, people of ‘position’ for example, have the attachment of seeking to be first among many. St Mark in today’s gospel reminds us that those that wish to be great will be called to serve, those wishing to be first among us should be the slave of all. This is an important message, and lesson, for those who strive to be leaders.