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I suspect many of us
gathered here today―Mission
Sunday 2003 for Roman Catholics throughout the world―wouldn’t
recognize the names of three fellow Catholics whose exemplary servant
leadership we easily recognize.
One of these
Catholics is Fred Ozanan. “Who’s Fred Ozanan?” you might wonder.
When Fred was in
college, he found himself engaged in a heated debate with fellow student
who believed that Christianity was, at best, a scourge upon human
history. He detailed for Fred all of the negative things that have been
perpetrated upon humanity during the past two millennia in the name of
Christianity as well as those many horrible things that have occurred
simply because Christians didn’t lift a finger to provide assistance.
Defending his faith as best he could against all of these charges, Fred
felt the floor fall out from beneath him when the skeptic asked him:
“So, Fred, exactly what do you do to demonstrate your faith?”
That question forced
Fred Ozanan―who
was quite a good Catholic, judging solely by the standard of external
practices―to
grapple with the realization that faith requires much more than uttering
pious thoughts, attending Sunday mass, and participating in the
sacraments. That’s just the minimum, a basic foundation. As he
wrestled with what that challenge really meant in terms of his life,
Fred experienced a moment of conversion, coming to recognize now as he
never had before that God calls people by name and He sends them into
the world
as missionaries
to put their
faith into action. In response to this insight, Fred Ozanan organized a
bunch of his college buddies whose mission would be to visit the sick,
to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, and to perform other necessary
corporal works of mercy.
Fred’s servant
leadership―steeped
in his love of God that Fred realized must also be expressed in
authentic love of neighbor―spread
from that first, small group of committed Catholic lay collegiate
students to the organization most of us know today as the St. Vincent de
Paul Society. Decades before the Great Society envisioned by President
Lyndon B. Johnson was established by an act of Congress, individual
Catholics―like
Fred Ozanan―heard
God’s call and dedicated themselves as missionaries to serve the needs
of the poor and downtrodden through this small, faith-based organization
located not in some far away country but within the boundaries of their
local parish community. Even in our own parish, there is a need for
missionaries who can provide for the needs of the poor and those who
have fallen on hard times.
I suspect many of us
gathered here today also wouldn’t recognize the name of a second
Catholic, Agnes Bojaxhiu. She was born in a small, Albanian
farming town in 1910.
When Agnes was in
the seventh grade, she decided God was calling her to dedicate herself
as a missionary to serve the poorest of the poor. Her mission
eventually led Agnes to venture from Albania to India where she became a
teacher in a local Catholic high school. While many of her students
were poor, for Agnes, this wasn’t good enough. Agnes just didn’t
believe that she was fulfilling her mission to serve the truly poor.
Although many of us
might not recognize the name of Agnes Bojaxhiu, all of us undoubtedly
recognize her decades of servant leadership on behalf of the poorest of
the poor as Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Today, this Mission Sunday 2003,
Mother Teresa is now revered as “Blessed” Teresa throughout the world
because of her love and care for those all of those persons who nobody
seemed to care about, especially Calcutta's slum dwellers, orphans, and
those left to die on street curbs from leprosy. In their midst of their
suffering and pain, Blessed Teresa brought the Kingdom of God as she
provided their needs. Perhaps her life’s mission is best summed up in a
statement Blessed Teresa once made: “Don’t wait for leaders; do it
alone, person to person.” It is rather comfortable to come to Church on
Sunday and to believe that we are doing God a favor just by being here.
It’s something altogether different to leave our comfortable
surroundings and to demonstrate true love of neighbor to the poorest of
the poor in places where we are outsiders, just as Blessed Teresa’s
sisters do today in Norristown and many other cities in the United
States.
I suspect that some
of us recognize the name of the third Catholic, Karol Jozef Wojtyla.
Born in a small, rural town south of Krakow, Poland, in 1920, “Lolek”
(that’s what his friends called Karol), loved sports, including soccer,
skiing, hiking, swimming, and kayaking. Not allowing the anti-Semitism
present in his hometown to distort his view about the Jews who lived in
his neighborhood, Lolek was the goalie for the neighborhood Jewish
soccer team because they didn’t have enough players. Lolek’s mother was
a school teacher; so, it shouldn’t prove surprising that, in addition to
being an athlete, Lolek was also an excellent student.
During his lifetime,
Lolek has almost been killed three times.
As a youth, Lolek
was struck by a street car. While in college, Lolek was hit by a
truck. The physical damage these accidents caused Lolek is evident even
today, especially when Lolek is fatigued and tired because his shoulders
droop pronouncedly from his right side to his left side. Then, as an
adult, Lolek was the subject of an assassination attempt.
Although some of us
may not recognize his name, all of us, I am quite confident, recognize
Lolek’s life of servant leadership on behalf for the past twenty five
years as Pope John Paul II. Credited with playing a decisive role in
the fall of the Soviet Union, a champion of human rights and the dignity
of the human person from conception until natural death, and an untiring
teacher of the Gospel of Life, Lolek’s life of servant leadership has
not ended but now is entering a new, but final phase. At
eighty-three-years old and obviously failing in strength and health,
many have called for Pope John Paul II to resign. His inability to
stand for any length of time, to deliver a complete speech, and to
control the tremor in his left hand or the slurring of his speech, these
people assert, make Lolek unfit for leadership. Yet, he stubbornly
refuses to do so. Why? Having taught us by the example of his life how
to live as Jesus lived, I believe that Lolek, the servant leader, wants
to teach all of us how to die as Jesus died, to endure with grace and
dignity the suffering, pain, and death that is sure to come our way.
It's so much easier, isn't it, to abandon our elderly to nursing homes
than personally to provide care for our elderly and infirmed parents and
relatives?
Today’s gospel
provides a vivid contrast between the servant leadership exemplified in
the missions of Fred Ozanan, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, and Pope John
Paul II and that of Zebedee’s sons, James and John.
You might remember
these two characters. These are the sons who left their father alone in
the boat with the “hired” servants when Jesus called James and John to
follow him. Coming from a family of some means―Zebedee
presumably owned a fleet of fishing boats―it
is understandable that these two fellows not only understood and desired
wealth and social position but also knew how to use both to further
their own ambitions. And, more likely than not, Zebedee probably raised
his two sons to be ambitious so that, one day, they could take over
their father’s business and to make it grow.
So, when Jesus
called James and John to follow him, their enthusiasm to participate in
the “new world order” Jesus was establishing led the two brothers to
conclude that their efforts to bring about this new kingdom would bring
them fame, social status, and wealth. That’s why they said to Jesus:
“Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you….Grant that in
your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left.”
Unfortunately, James
and John just didn’t get it. They had completely missed the point Jesus
was making. For Jesus, the Kingdom of God is constructed upon suffering
not power and leadership in the Kingdom of God is expressed
through love of neighbor not lording oneself over others. “Can
you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with
which I am baptized?” Jesus asked the two brothers. “For the Son of
Man, did not come to serve but to be served and to give his life as a
ransom for many,” Jesus said. James and John did not yet recognize how,
by surrendering one’s ambition to be served by others and by becoming a
servant to others―especially
the poor and downtrodden―one
leads as Jesus led.
“Servant
leadership,” as Jesus modeled it, is based upon a basic belief or
attitude of heart. Servant leadership is not about privilege, power, or
glory in the things of this world. No, servant leadership is about
developing a heart capable of discerning what others need if they are to
become all that God has created them to be. As Jesus taught the Twelve:
“You know that those
who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and
their great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not
be so among you. Rather whoever wishes to be great among you will be
your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of
all.”
This is what Fred
Ozanan, Agnes Bojaxhiu, and Karol Jozef Wojtyla realized as they
realized God’s mission for each them. This is what James and John did
not yet realize at this point in their lives.
People who “lead as
Jesus led” and “serve as Jesus served” put others and their needs
first. These servants are not put off or offended when others ask (and
sometimes, demand) them to do things. Why? Because these women and men
realize that they are nothing more than servants and, because of this
lowly status, they expect to receive orders and to have to sacrifice
themselves willingly for others. These servants put themselves at the
disposal of others who will benefit from their service and they don’t
expect anything in return. Why? Because these women and men understand
that their mission is to spend themselves giving to others rather than
receiving from them.
The question that
Jesus’ mission places before us, as do the missions of Fred Ozanan,
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, and Pope John Paul II, is: Does the actual
practice of our faith indicate that we are servant leaders building the
Kingdom of God by our genuine love of neighbor? Or, does the actual
practice of our faith indicate that we are more concerned with ourselves
and building our own kingdoms where we are lord and master?
In imitation of
Jesus’ servant leadership, servant leaders like Fred Ozanan, Blessed
Teresa of Calcutta, and Pope John Paul II teach us that faith is much
more than uttering pious thoughts, attending Sunday mass, and
participating in the sacraments. As important as these externals are,
faith also involves a mission where God sends the Freds, the Agnes, and
the Loleks to give their lives as an “offering for sin” as Isaiah the
prophet expressed that concept in today’s first reading. That is, faith
challenges people like you and me to see sin as it manifests itself in
poverty and injustice, in sickness and in squalor, in arrogance and in
pride. Recognizing these manifestations of sin isn’t enough, however.
Faith also requires us to do something about it by offering our lives as
servants.
As Jesus taught
James and John in today’s gospel, our “glory” is a consequence of giving
not of receiving, of serving not of lording over, and of
self-sacrifice not of being served. This is an attitude of heart
that only grows and develops as we recognize that God has created us and
entrusted an entire lifetime―however
long that may be―to
bring glory to this world through our servant leadership. Our mission
is to be those “good and faithful servants” God sends in each generation
who offer their lives in the service of building His Kingdom and by
providing for others’ needs. |
HOMILY
