Being an “adder” requires us to get out of our comfort zone every day and think about adding value to others…….. But that’s what it takes to be a leader whom others want to follow.

“Though my work may be menial, though my contribution may be small, I can perform it with dignity and offer it with unselfishness. My talents may not be great, but I can use them to bless the lives of others.... The goodness of the world in which we live is the accumulated goodness of many small and seemingly inconsequential acts.” ― Gordon B. Hinckley: (1910 -  2008: was an American religious leader and author) 

Gospel Text: (MK 10:35-45)

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 cup 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 cup 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."

Jesus promises James and John in Sunday’s Gospel passage, “‘The cup that I drink, you will drink’”. Little do the brothers know at this point how much and what sort of courage they will have to bear for these words to be fulfilled. James was martyred for the Truth, while John lived a long life preaching the Truth in word and work, ending his life in exile on the island of Patmos. No matter how the Lord calls you to spend your days on this earth, courage from the heart of Christ our King will be needed. Simply ask Him for this gift then, trusting that in Jesus “we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens.”