May 11, 2017
Thursday, 4th Week of Easter 1st Reading: Acts 13:13–25
Gospel: Jn 13:16–20
After Jesus had washed the feet of the disciples he said. “Truly, I say to you, the servant is not greater than his master, nor is the messenger greater than he who sent him. Understand this, and blessed are you if you put it into practice.
“I am not speaking of you all, because I know the ones I have chosen and the Scripture has to be fulfilled that says, The one who shared my table has risen against me. I tell you this now before it happens, so that when it does happen, you may know that I am He.
“Truly, I say to you, whoever welcomes the one I send, welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me, welcomes the One who sent me.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in
the Assimilated Life
Experience)
Today’s Gospel message is a lesson on humility. Jesus said, “the servant is not greater than his master, nor is the messenger greater than he who sent him”. Because the one who is sent is just a representative, he has to subdue his identity so that the spirit and charisma of the sender may stand out. When it is the messenger that stands out, as when he pursues his own motives, he eclipses the agenda of the sender and spoils the whole mission. In light of this, a person who is proud cannot be an effective representative.
In giving Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven Jesus chose Peter to represent him on earth. As the keys were passed on from Peter to Linus, and to the succeeding popes, the representation was also handed down. Every Pope acknowledges that he is the servant of the servants of God (“Servus Servorum Dei”). It was Pope St. Gregory (590-604) who first used this title in contradistinction with the Archbishop of Constantinople named John the Faster who proclaimed himself as the “Ecumenical Patriarch”. This was a title of superiority intended to overshadow the Bishop of Rome. The use of the more humble title “Servus Servorum Dei” by St. Gregory was supposed to be a lesson on humility for John the Faster.
The Church, admittedly, has not always shown a good example in the exercise of humility. This weakness humbles the church that has remained human albeit holy, catholic and apostolic. The good news is that in her weakness the Church has always enjoyed God’s abiding presence as promised by Jesus when he said, ‘I will be with you until the end of time” (Matthew 28:20). But while it is true that Christ supplies for the inadequacy of his Church leaders, this is no cause for those leaders to continue lording it over the flock. They must cultivate the virtue of humility, or face severe sanctions in the afterlife for throwing the monkey wrench at God’s mission. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
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