Sun chat: Serving Others

The first disciples certainly did ascribe to the fact that Jesus was very probably the Messiah for whom they yearned, and yet he was one with a mission far from the reality that they expected.

Today’s Gospel gives a vivid picture of this dilemma in their failure to appreciate the fact that Jesus speaks about his upcoming death and resurrection and the suffering involved in that particular path. The clear unfolding of that prediction met with confusion and fear on the part of his disciples, because they found themselves unable to grasp this reality in light of their own expectations, hopes and dreams.

Their perception of their role in the reality of this kingdom led them to argue among themselves. Their expectations naturally convinced them of the importance of their own role in the fulfillment of Jewish hopes for their future and embroiled them in hostility, envy and enmity among themselves. Jesus again clearly demonstrated the importance of their role and how their role would be played out – in ways far different from their own perceptions. The little child in their midst presents clearly the ideal to which his disciples are called. How unaware they seemed to be of the call that was theirs to be of service rather than to be served.

Saint Francis de Sales speaks of the natural difficulty often involved in our acquiescence to the will of God. Often we find ourselves in the position of the apostles in the Gospel account today, where following the will of God does not conform to our own expectations or desires. In the Treatise on the Love of God (Book 9, Chapter 2), Francis tells us:

A truly living heart loves God’s good pleasures not only in consolations but also in afflictions, but it loves it most of all in the cross, in pain, and labor, because love’s principal power is to enable the lover to suffer for the beloved object.

We need to ask ourselves today how our own expectations, hopes or dreams prevent us from truly acquiescing to the Will of God. Do the difficult times we encounter stifle us in our attempts to follow God’s will? Have we been able to abandon our attempts to have God’s will conform to our own desires and wills? Do we really appreciate the gift that Jesus is to us?

A prayerful reflection upon these questions will lead to that opportunity needed for us to acquiesce to the Will of God. What a necessary part of our journey of faith this process really is. In the Introduction to the Devout Life (Book 2, Chapter 1), St. Francis de Sales wrote:

Prayer places our intelligence in the divine love. It is the best way to purge our intelligence of its ignorance and our will of its bad affections…I suggest, above all, Philothea, mental prayer of the mind and heart, especially that which is made on the Life and Passion of Our Lord. In contemplating Him you will be filled with Him; you will learn to act like Him and to conform your actions to His.