“Who are you Lord and Who am I”…When we know deep within our being that we are not God…He is the creator and we the creation….Then serving others becomes natural…..What prevents you from this mindset?

Today at Holy Mass we hear a theme discussed in both readings…The idea of being a servant…Historically speaking Jesus is referred to as the “suffering servant”….Jesus led from the front, by giving us an example of obedience to the will of the Father and unconditional service to humanity…..”Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”…..This passage from St Paul tells us everything about who Jesus Christ was…..He came to serve….Therefore so must we…..What prevents you from this mindset?…When we “give ourself away” in this manner we find out who we truly are

“Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him”

Getting back to the question I put forth above…..What prevents you from fully grasping the mindset of a servant?……If I were to be honest…..Its our pride…We have a false sense of who we are……I am not pointing fingers here, I do as well, its a very human trap to fall into…Especially for Americans because our life here in this country is so comfortable……St Francis found the answer to this question by praying in front of the San Damiano Cross and asking God this one simple question…”Who are you Lord and Who am I…When we ask that question with a sincere and open heart, we come to the conclusion that we are here on this earth for a limited amount of time…Nothing can change that….And any “false sense of self” we create is just that false……….Have you ever watched someone die?…I have many times….All people die the same way…Their breathing gets very heavy and each breath gets spaced out longer and longer from the last breath until they stop breathing all together…I have watched this happen many times in India and I have seen it with my own father….We all die the same way…..Death is the great equalizer…It should remind us that the greatest thing we can do here on earth is to give of ourself to others….This is our legacy…Everything else is forgotten and turns to “dust”….And when we “give ourself away” to others, we serve God in the process….I have met all kinds of people in my life…Wealthy people and poor people alike all over the world…The happiest people I have ever met were people who had the mindset of a servant…This is the path to heaven but before we “get on that road” that leads to eternal life…Like St Francis we must answer for ourself the question he wrestled with…..”Who are you Lord and Who am I”

“The just shall possess the land and dwell in it forever”

In the Gospel today St Luke is rather blunt about the the role of what a servant is….He basically said….If you decide to serve others as God asked of you, don’t think you are somehow “better” then the rest of the world that chose not to serve…You are only doing what was asked of you by God himself - Period Full Stop!…This is what Jesus did…..Remember the words of St Paul?……"Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God"….To understand that gets back to the question put forth by St Francis….”Who are you Lord and Who am I”…When we know deep within our being that we are not God…He is the creator and we the creation….Then serving others becomes natural…..What prevents you from this mindset?