Today’s question is about unemployment. Yes, this continues to be a major issue as we begin a new year. So, I thought I might ask you a question about jobs. You don’t need to answer it out loud, but I’d like for you to consider it over the next few minutes. The question is this: If you were offered the job of “servant,” would you accept the position? Yes, if you were unemployed, would you accept the job of being a “servant?” How about if you were already employed in a decent job, would you give it up to become a “servant?”
My guess is not many would seek employment in this field. Being a servant doesn’t seem to be on the career path for most people. And yet, a major area of employment today is that of the so-called “service industry.” Many of us are called to be of service to others on a day-by-day basis. However, some of us work from nine-to-five as “employees.” We may be called to serve others, but we seldom really want to do this. Instead of helping the client, some focus on their own needs and desires. And that is not what a true servant does.
A true servant is called upon to satisfy the needs and desires of another person, not their own comforts. These may be the needs and desires of a master, as in bygone days. Or they may be the needs of a customer who wants help in finding a product hidden among the shelves of a department store, or of clients who require aid in addressing specific problems in their lives.
Yes, a servant, or any person providing a service, is supposed to put someone else ahead of one’s own self. On the other hand, a servant is not a slave. A slave is forced to provide the required work. A servant freely chooses to serve the needs of another person. Which brings us to a consideration of our first reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah.
The Lord spoke to Isaiah, saying, “You are my servant.” The Lord did not say, “You are my slave.” Nor did the Lord say, “You are my sales associate.” Isaiah was not called upon to serve the Lord either as an unfree slave, or as a coequal associate. Rather, Isaiah was to address the desires of the Lord, even without the Lord needing to command specific actions. Isaiah was to help the Lord in leading the tribes of Jacob and of Israel back to the Lord. But the desires of the Lord God went even further. Isaiah was to be more than a servant. He was to be “a light to the nations . . . [so that the Lord’s] salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” The Lord God did not limit himself to the Jews as his chosen people. Rather, his salvation was “ … to reach to the ends of the earth.”
Centuries later, Saint Paul, writing to Christ’s followers in the city of Corinth, greeted them with similar words when he wrote, “… to you who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy, with all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Yes, Paul addressed his words to everyone who are servants of our Lord Jesus Christ, no matter where they may be. He called for the Grace and Peace of the Father and of the Son to be granted to all Christians.
And some two-thousand years later, all of us are invited to follow these words. This week from Tuesday, January 18 through the following Monday, January 25, our Archbishop has joined with all other Christians in the annual celebration of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. This call for prayers for Christian Unity includes all of us.
It’s also fitting that this afternoon, at 3:00 p.m., Cardinal DiNardo will be celebrating in the co-cathedral a Mass of Remembrance for Dr. Martin Luther King Junior, whose life we honor with Monday’s national holiday. Here, in Dr. King, we have a fellow Christian who knew the meaning of being a servant, of attending to the needs of his own community as well as extending his ministry to others in search of a unity of all people.
Last Sunday, we celebrated the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. Today, we begin the weeks between Christmastide and Lent. We begin this new period in Ordinary Time with another look at the Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. In today’s gospel we heard how John called Jesus, “… the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world … [the one] who will baptize with the Holy Spirit … [the one] who is the Son of God.” Here we have the image of the Lamb who is to be sacrificed, whose life is given up so that sins may be removed, a suffering servant who seeks the welfare of others. The one who is the son of the Master and the Master, himself. The one who becomes the servant of all.
In an imitation of the baptism of Christ, himself, in our own baptism each one of us is called upon to become a priest, prophet and king. And yet, a special kind of king. A king who protects. A king who serves.
Once-upon-a-time, we were familiar with service-stations, places where we could not only have others fill our gas tanks for us but, also, offer to check our battery and clean our windshields. But now it’s all self-service. No longer do we serve others, now we serve ourselves.
Once our neighborhoods and our towns were service communities where each person offered care and concern to others both near and far. Longing for such unity, for such oneness of concern, there are those who, once more, try to be of service to others. To offer personal care and concern to all who seek our help and, even, to those too tired or afraid to speak out for assistance.
A few minutes ago, I asked how many of you might be willing to become a servant. The question is still an open one for your consideration. In times of tragedy, many people come to the aid of others. Whether in Tucson, Arizona or on an island devastated by earthquake, hurricane and disease, there are many servants, those who offer assistance freely for the sake of those needing ministry, rather than for their own glorification. However, servant-hood is also needed even in the ordinary times of the year. Servants of the Lord are needed each and every day.
The motto of St Ignatius of Loyola was to do everything “for the greater glory of God.” Perhaps each one of us can take up as our guiding principle, the words we heard today from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, “The Lord said to me: You are my servant … through whom I show my glory … and my God is now my strength!”
2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time; January 16, 2011;
(1/17/11 is MLK holiday) also Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (1/18 – 1/25/11)
Is 49:3, 5-6; 1 Cor 1:1-3; Jn 1:29-34