Jesus asks his
disciples an apparently indiscreet question: “What were you discussing along
the way?” It is a question which he could also ask each of us today: “What do
you talk about every day?” “What are your aspirations?” The Gospel tells us
that the disciples “did not answer because on the way they had been arguing
about who was the most important”. They were ashamed to tell Jesus what they
were talking about. Like the disciples then, today we too can be caught up in
these same arguments: who is the most important?[1]
Jesus does not
press the question. He does not force them to tell him what they were talking
about on the way. But the question lingers, not only in the minds of the
disciples, but also in their hearts.
Who is the most
important? This is a life-long question to which, at different times, we must
give an answer. We cannot escape the question; it is written on our hearts. I
remember more than once, at family gatherings, children being asked: “Who do
you love more, Mommy or Daddy”? It’s like asking them: “Who is the most
important for you?” But is this only a game we play with children? The history
of humanity has been marked by the answer we give to this question.
Jesus is not
afraid of people’s questions; he is not afraid of our humanity or the different
things we are looking for. On the contrary, he knows the depths of the human
heart, and, as a good teacher, he is always ready to encourage and support us.
As usual, he takes up our searching, our aspirations, and he gives them a new
horizon. As usual, he somehow finds an the answer which can pose a new
challenge, setting aside the “right answers”, the standard replies we are
expected to give. As usual, Jesus sets before us the “logic” of love. A
mindset, an approach to life, which is capable of being lived out by all,
because it is meant for all.
Far from any
kind of elitism, the horizon to which Jesus points us is not for those few
privileged souls capable of attaining the heights of knowledge or different
levels of spirituality. The horizon to which Jesus points us always has to do
with daily life, also here on “our island”, something which can season our
daily lives with eternity.
Who is the most
important? Jesus is straightforward in his reply: “Whoever wishes to be the
first – the most important – among you must be the last of all, and the servant
of all”. Whatever wishes to be great must serve others, not be served by
others.
This is the
great paradox of Jesus. The disciples were arguing about who would have the
highest place, who would be chosen for privileges – they were the disciples,
those closest to Jesus, and they were arguing about that! –, who would be above
the common law, the general norm, in order to stand out in the quest for
superiority over others. Who would climb the ladder most quickly to take the
jobs which carry certain benefits.
Jesus upsets
their “logic”, their mindset, simply by telling them that life is lived
authentically in a concrete commitment to our neighbor. That is, by serving.
The call to
serve involves something special, to which we must be attentive. Serving means
caring for their vulnerability. Caring for the vulnerable of our families, our
society, our people. Theirs are the suffering, fragile and downcast faces which
Jesus tells us specifically to look at and which he asks us to love. With a
love which takes shape in our actions and decisions. With a love which finds
expression in whatever tasks we, as citizens, are called to perform. It is
people of flesh and blood, people with individual lives and stories, and with
all their frailty, that Jesus asks us to protect, to care for and to serve.
Being a Christian entails promoting the dignity of our brothers and sisters,
fighting for it, living for it. That is why Christians are constantly called to
set aside their own wishes and desires, their pursuit of power, before the
concrete gaze of those who are most vulnerable.
There is a kind
of “service” which serves others, yet we need to be careful not to be tempted
by another kind of service, one which is “self-serving” with regard to others.
There is a way to go about serving which is interested in only helping “my
people”, “our people”. This service always leaves “your people” outside, and
gives rise to a process of exclusion.
All of us are
called by virtue of our Christian vocation to that service which truly serves,
and to help one another not to be tempted by a “service” which is really
“self-serving”. All of us are asked, indeed urged, by Jesus to care for one
another out of love. Without looking to one side or the other to see what our
neighbor is doing or not doing. Jesus says: Whoever would be first among you
must be the last, and the servant of all”. That person will be the first. Jesus
does not say: if your neighbor wants to be first, let him be the servant! We have
to be careful to avoid judgmental looks and renew our belief in the
transforming look to which Jesus invites us.
This caring for
others out of love is not about being servile. Rather, it means putting the
question of our brothers and sisters at the center. Service always looks to
their faces, touches their flesh, senses their closeness and even, in some
cases, “suffers” that closeness and tries to help them. Service is never
ideological, for we do not serve ideas, we serve people.
God’s holy and
faithful people in Cuba is a people with a taste for celebrations, for
friendship, for beautiful things. It is a people which marches with songs of
praise. It is a people which has its wounds, like every other people, yet knows
how to stand up with open arms, to keep walking in hope, because it has a
vocation of grandeur. These were the seeds sown by your forebears. Today I ask
you to care for this vocation of yours, to care for these gifts which God has
given you, but above all I invite you to care for and be at the service of the
frailty of your brothers and sisters. Do not neglect them for plans which can
be seductive, but are unconcerned about the face of the person beside you. We
know, we are witnesses of the incomparable power of the resurrection, which “everywhere
calls forth the seeds of a new world” (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 276, 278).
Let us not
forget the Good News we have heard today: the importance of a people, a nation,
and the importance of individuals, which is always based on how they seek to
serve their vulnerable brothers and sisters. Here we encounter one of the
fruits of a true humanity.
Because, dear
brothers and sisters: “whoever does not live to serve, does not ‘serve’ to
live” •
[1] APOSTOLIC
JOURNEY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS TO
CUBA, TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND VISIT TO THE UNITED NATIONS
HEADQUARTERS (19-28 SEPTEMBER 2015). HOLY MASS. HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE
FRANCIS. Plaza de la Revolución, Havana Sunday, 20 September 2015
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario