MODELING ON JESUS! ~ CookingFood.Org

“HONEY FROM THE ROCK”

Monday, 25^thJuly 2016,

Seventeenth Week of Ordinary Time

Feast of St. James, Apostle

2 Cor 4: 7-15;

Ps 125: 1-6;

Mt 20: 20-28

MODELING ON JESUS!

St James, whose feast we commemorate today, was a son of Zebedee and Salome and the brother of John the Apostle and Evangelist. He was one of three apostles whom Jesus selected to bear witness to his greatest miracles - his transfiguration, and his agony in the garden of Gethsemane. He was prominent in the church in Jerusalem, and the first Apostle to die for Christ. He died a martyr, executed by sword by Herod Agrippa I.

Today’s Gospel is truly a word of life for all of us. Indeed, it shows the path of life for Christians: “Be like the Son of Man who has come, not to be served but to serve and to give his life to redeem many.” “If you want to be first, make yourself servant to all.” This is true for people in government, for leaders in politics, teachers in school, supervisors in business, parents at home, priests in the parish and all people. It is a word that is contrary to what the world tells us today. We often hear people say: “what are we in power for?” Today this is said in the government, in the school, in the family, in the church and in practically all areas of human activity. The mentality of the world is to dominate people. It is to have powers so that we may benefit from that power. And in the end we will be served according to what we want and need.

But Christianity is the opposite! To be a Christian means to think like Christ, to act like Christ. It means to live in a radical way, that is, to live contrary to the values of the pagan world. Today’s gospel invites us to true happiness, which is to serve. And the reward will be that we shall be called sons and daughters of God and we will sit at the Heavenly banquet, may be not at the right or left, but surely somewhere there in Heaven.

Prayer: Lord, help me to walk in Your path of service. Amen.