by Fr Joachim Robert
Malachi 1:14 – 2:2.8-10
Psalm 130
1 Thessalonians 2:7-9,13
Matthew 23:1-12
Theme: The Lowly will be Exalted
The greatest among you must be your servant.
Dear friends, today’s invitation of the Gospel is to put God at the centre of what we do. And it says “For those who want to exalt themselves, must humble themselves before God so that God may be glorified.” And that is an invitation, dear friends, that has been given to each and every one of us because when we humble ourselves before God, God looks at our intentions and He exalts us.
The First Reading in the Gospel today gives us different lifestyle choices. The first is to be like the Scribes and the Pharisees and the second is to choose the path of servanthood. And again,
the lifestyle of the Pharisees and the Scribes are popularity, power, place of importance, recognition and they want people to see what they do and the public image becomes very important;
and the path of servanthood is one that comes to serve and usually when they serve, it is hidden, with humility, unseen by most people and they most of the time work silently without any fanfare, not wanting any positions for themselves but focusing on the individual that is at hand.
If I may ask you, dear friends, which choices do you make in your daily life? Are you like the Scribes and the Pharisees or are you like the servant? How many can say that you are like the servant? And how many of you can say that you are like the Scribes and the Pharisees? All of you are a little shy today.
But I am sure both of these exist within us because sometimes because of our pride, ego and perhaps our own self interest, we choose the path like the Scribes and the Pharisees and we put those things as the utmost important thing in our life. But the invitation of Jesus is to follow the path of humility and the path of servanthood because that is the way of the Gospel, that is the virtues of the Gospel that Jesus preaches about.
But if we look at the context of where Jesus preaches this Gospel, dear friends, it is to the Scribes and the Pharisees. And even though Jesus gives them a guideline per se or the value that they need to live up to, He preaches to the Scribes and the Pharisees so that they can have that conversion of heart to move from their ways of thinking, their ways, their lifestyles, towards what God wants of him. And what He is requesting from them is a change of heart.
Jesus did not abandon the Scribes and the Pharisees entirely. What He mentions to them is to say the truth in love. Because the kingdom of God that Jesus preached about is the kingdom that exalts the lowly because God chooses Himself to humble Himself as one of us so that we can be saved. And the path of humility that Jesus took is the path of emptying Himself to become like us so that we may be saved.
And as we look at the Gospel again today, that invitation that has been given to us is to grow in that deep relationship with God. What the Scribes and the Pharisees are called to is a deeper relationship because a servant serves God with the love that comes of the love of God and the love of neighbour as what we expressed in last Sunday’s reading. The love of God and love of neighbour must be expressed in the way we treat one another.
And today as well, as Jesus tells the Scribes and the Pharisees that that way of life is important, that values of the world needs to be addressed and need to be put aside so that the values of God, values of Jesus can be established. And that is the struggle that each and every one of us go through, dear friends. And the desire to love God, the desire to serve God must come from within. And I am sure each and every one of us struggle with this scenario.
As I look at the altar servers today, (because as I look at them I also look at myself. Because of my growing up years as an altar server and perhaps because of the drawing factor or maybe what attracted me as a young boy perhaps was to be at the altar with the robe and all that, and listening to so many who are now priests, previously in the seminary), many of them come to the realization that these are moments where they have been attracted and after they have been attracted, they purify their motives and intention to grow in their relationship with God.
And the same way, dear friends, we are called to enter in that relationship with this God who comes to call us and to lead us towards Himself. And as I see them, to look at the desire of that young heart coming to serve, coming to be available to be at service at the Mass, to be at the altar and to do what they can so that the liturgical celebration may become one that is beautiful, one that is able to help us to pray, so they have an important responsibility. Yeah, to help people to pray and to get them connected to God.
Yes, we may be drawn towards so many things but ultimately as we look at the intention and purity of their hearts, we as leaders, we as parents, we as elders of the church, must draw them to a deeper encounter and that love for God in their lives.
And I hope and I pray that as they continue to serve God with generosity, they too come to encounter the love of God that is existent in their life and in the life of the people around them. And also the love of the community towards our young people because if we do not allow them this opportunity, if we do not allow them these ways of engaging themselves in the community, then we are unable to fan into flame the gift that God has blessed them with.
And if they want to serve God wholeheartedly, in many ways I am sure many of you want to serve God wholeheartedly, and we must be able to allow that flame of that fire of love to continue to burn with that passion and that conviction of what and how God has loved us and brought us to that deeper relationship. And we as a community of faith must support, encourage, inspire them so that their discipleship with God continues to grow and mature.
And again, we always must be mindful that as we draw closer to our discipleship, that we should not be too much focused on the ways of the world which is power, popularity, place of importance. But perhaps that may be our drawing factor towards where we are today but we need to purify those motivations and intentions so that we are able to grow in that deep relationship with God.
And ultimately, dear friends, the mistakes that we do, the situation and difficulties that we encounter are not as important of the disposition of their heart to serve God with sincerity. Yes, we will face challenges, we will face circumstances where we are unable to be comfortable but we know when we place God at the centre of everything that we do, God blesses us and God blesses our ministry.
The Responsorial Psalm today also say:
Keep my soul in peace before you, O Lord.
And as we keep our soul at peace with the loving God who loves us, we know that we are in a secure place of love.
And the Second Reading finally also tells us of this first letter of Saint Paul to the Thessalonians, like a mother feeding and looking after her own children, we felt devoted and protective towards you and had come to love you so much that we were eager to hand over to you not only the Good News but our whole life as well. Because of that commitment of Saint Paul towards the people of Thessalonia, because of the loving relationship, because of the community that grows together, each of them giving themselves towards one another, embracing one another, respecting one another and allowing God to be present in each and other’s life. And acknowledging God’s presence in each other’s life, they were able to grow in their community of faith.
And let us pray, dear friends, that as we pray for them as young people, that our community too may continue to grow in this awareness of God’s love for us. That young people are a blessing that has been given to us by God for us to nurture, to care and to support, to encourage and to inspire.
And as they have been given to us as people that have been loved by God, let us also do the same in reaching out to them and giving them every opportunity that they have to grow in their loving relationship with God and ultimately to grow in that loving relationship with that Eucharist. Because when we are united in that loving relationship with God, allow the Eucharist to nourish us and to build us as a community of faith.
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