Thursday of the Fourth Week of Easter
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By SOPHIE DRUFFNER
When Jesus had washed the disciples’ feet, he said to them:
“Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master
nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him.
If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it.
I don’t understand Jesus’s dictum most of the time. I wonder how many of my friends may have gotten into a “better” college than I did. I feel a little insecure about people who do better than me, and a little superior to people are doing “worse” than me (in quotes because no one does “worse” than anyone else, only differently). And if we’re being honest with ourselves, most of us feel a little insecure when we know a colleague might be up for a big promotion, when a friend moves on to a bigger, better, job, when a friend’s child is accepted to an Ivy League school and ours is rejected from a state university. But it’s okay. Jesus tells us in this Gospel that it’s all going to be okay because no person is greater than anyone else. Despite the decisions that we make, despite any mistakes or awards, despite any promotions or positions, we are all equal in God’s eyes, if not in the eyes of the world.
The next time you look at someone sideways, with narrowed eyes because they seem to be doing “better” than you, remember that we are all equal. Even the saints are on the same footing with us, and they’re considered some of the holiest people...but only by us. If we attain heaven, we are all “saints” in God’s eyes. But God knows that there’s a capacity in each of us for greatness and a capacity for doing bad things, and it is up to us to choose. We all have an equal ability to choose right and wrong, but even if we choose wrong, our decisions to not make us “less” in God’s eyes. And those are the only eyes that matter.
Sophie, if we were all as honest with ourselves as you are, we would advance much quicker in our spiritual lives: myself included!! We do spend our time and energy comparing and what a waste of time that is! I do tell my boys: aim for the desires in your heart because God did indeed put a purpose and the desire in your DNA that he wants he wants you to find, to seek, to strive for. Individually we must search for this seed so that we may water it. We will water it with our mistakes, sins, achievements and humility. But most of all it is His grace that waters it!!! "All things work together for our good....". Discovering more of God is the secret to our happiness! "We shall be like him for we shall see him as he is..." Our lives are made up of small discoveries of God which we will find in our everyday experiences of life. Someone once asked me why I go to Mass every day. I said "If I can find one small discovery of God in the experience of Mass, union with God, it is all I desire. It is a total gift for me!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your honesty.