When personal goals and ambitions are at odds with God’s wish for a just and merciful world, one ruled by divine love, then there is something at odds with the life we are leading and the life that faith calls us to: the call to live a life of love as Christ’s followers. To live a life of selfless love, one that wishes the best for ourselves and for others, that instills in the hearts of humankind the power to forgive, the power to be merciful, the power that comes from true humility, well, not only is this not only hard to do, but it seems to go against the way the world works. Exactly.
In our first reading today, the prophet Jeremiah speaks a word that was at odds with what the people wanted. The word, which Jeremiah spoke as a prophet, was a divinely inspired word of loving challenge that God commanded him to speak. That word is ‘good’. And so, Jeremiah met stiff opposition and even threats to his life for speaking God’s word, of wishing goodness. In our gospel, Jesus also met stiff opposition from those who opposed his authority to speak and act in God’s name. Jesus prophesied that he would be rejected by the religious authorities in Jerusalem and be condemned to death by crucifixion - the most painful and humiliating death the Romans had devised for enemies who opposed their authority, opposed to goodness.
Right after Jesus had prophesied his impending death on the cross, the mother of James and John brought her sons before Jesus privately for a special request. She asked on their behalf for Jesus to grant them a special status among the disciples, namely to be placed in the highest position of privilege and power. James and John, from their mother’s voice, were asking Jesus to place them above their fellow disciples, again a selfish desire, and a desire at odds with God’s wish for our world. In our humanness, we all can remember when we often have done the same.
Some of us, well, we want to get ahead and be elevated in other’s eyes, so that we become more important, we desire a life where we desire to get the best position and where we can be first. Jesus responds by telling James and John that they do not understand what they are really asking for. Jesus called the twelve together and showed them the true and rightful purpose for seeking power and position – is to serve the good of others with love and mercy.
Authority without love, a love that is oriented toward the good of others, can so easily become self-serving and brutish. How? When it becomes not about those I serve, but about me, and how great I am. I have done this, and that, and that, look at me. This day, Jesus does the unthinkable - he reverses the order and values of the world’s way of thinking.
If you want to be great, then become a servant for others. The model of servant leadership, which Jesus presents to his disciples, is based on personal choice and freedom - the decision to put others first in care and concern and the freedom to serve them with love and compassion rather than with fear or desire for reward. True servant leadership is neither demeaning nor oppressive because its motivating force is love rather than preservation of ego and empowerment rather than pride, self-seeking, or egoistic fear.
We share then, in God’s reign by laying down our lives in humble service of one another as Jesus did for our sake, not because we ‘Lord it over others’, but because we see how divine, selfless love can indeed transform the world For God, for good. And so, the question we are left with this day, both from the mouths of Jeremiah and from Jesus, is: are you ready to lay down your life and love yourselves as God does? Yet more importantly, from that divine love we have been graced with, are we Christ-like, courageously able, to love others as God loves them, and then to humbly serve others from that space of divine love as Jesus did? That choice is entirely your (our) own.
Rev. Kent Beausoleil, SJ
Rev. Beausoleil, SJ, PhD, has lived in the Creighton Jesuit Community since 2020. Currently he ministers as the Market Vice President for Mission Integration (NE/IA) for CommonSpirit/CHI Health while continuing his ministry as a mission leader at five local area hospitals: Immanuel Medical Center, and Lasting Hope in Omaha, and Mercy Corning, Mercy Council Bluffs, and Missouri Valley in Iowa. Joining the Jesuits in 1997 and ordained in 2007 his Jesuit formation focused on three types of ministries: healthcare, spiritual direction and pastoral counseling, and higher education focusing on young adult spiritual development.
Rev. Kent A. Beausoleil, SJ has a PhD in Student Affairs from Miami University in Oxford, OH. He also possesses master’s degrees in public administration, philosophy, divinity and education. He loves to walk and be out in nature, cross-stitch and bake.
The ability to reflect on other contributors’ reflections as well as being able to provide a personal monthly spiritual reflection has become an important and integral part of my daily prayer.
