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Sacred
Scriptures/Liturgy- Commentary on Sunday's Readings |
If Any One Would Be First ...
"Whoever Is Great in Service, Is Great"
Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, OFMCap, Pontifical Household Preacher
25th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)
www.zenit.org
Wisdom 2:12,17-20; James
3:16--4:3; Mark 9:30-37
"And he sat down and called the Twelve; and he said to them, 'If any
one would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.'"
Does Jesus condemn with these words the desire to excel, to do great
things in life, to give the best of oneself, and favors instead
laziness, a defeatist spirit and the negligent?
So thought the philosopher Nietzsche, who felt the need to combat
Christianity fiercely, guilty in his opinion of having introduced
into the world the "cancer" of humility and self-denial. In his work
"Thus Spoke Zarathustra" he opposes this evangelical value with the
"will to power," embodied by the superman, the man of "great
health," who wishes to raise, not abase, himself.
It might be that Christians sometimes have misinterpreted Jesus'
thought and have given occasion to this misunderstanding. But this
is surely not what the Gospel wishes to tell us. "If any would be
first": therefore, it is possible to want to be first, it is not
prohibited, it is not a sin. With these words, not only does Jesus
not prohibit the desire to be first, but he encourages it. He just
reveals a new and different way to do so: not at the cost of others,
but in favor of others. He adds, in fact: "he must be last of all
and servant of all."
But what are the fruits of one or the other way of excelling? The
will to power leads to a situation in which one imposes oneself and
the rest serve; one is "happy" -- if there can be happiness in it --
and the rest unhappy; only one is victor, all the rest are
vanquished; one dominates, the rest are dominated.
We know with what results the idea of the superman was implemented
by Hitler. But it is not just Nazism; almost all the evils of
humanity stem from that root. In the Second Reading of this Sunday,
James asks himself the anguishing and perennial question: "What
causes wars?" In the Gospel, Jesus gives us the answer: the desire
for predominance. Predominance of one nation over another, of one
race over another, of a party over the others, of one sex over the
other, of one religion over another.
In service, instead, all benefit from the greatness of one. Whoever
is great in service, is great and makes others great; rather than
raising himself above others, he raises others with him. Alessandro
Manzoni concludes his poetic evocation of Napoleon's ventures with
the question: "Was it true glory? In posterity the arduous
sentence." This doubt, about whether or not it was truly glory, is
not posed for Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Raoul Follereau and all
those who daily serve the cause of the poor and those wounded by
wars, often risking their own lives.
Only one doubt remains. What to think of antagonism in sports and
competition in business? Are these things also condemned by Christ's
words? No, when they are contained within the limits of good
sportsmanship and good business, these things are good, they serve
to increase the level of physical capability and ... to lower prices
in trade. Indirectly, they serve the common good. Jesus' invitation
to be the last certainly doesn't apply to cycling or Formula 1
races!
But precisely, sport serves to clarify the limit of this greatness
in relation to service. "In a race all the runners compete, but only
one receives the prize," says St. Paul (1 Corinthians 9:24). Suffice
it to remember what happens at the end of a 100-meter flat race: The
winner exults, is surrounded by photographers and carried
triumphantly in the air. All the rest go away sad and humiliated.
"All run, but only one receives the prize."
St. Paul extracts, however, from athletic competitions also a
positive teaching: "Every athlete exercises self-control in all
things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an
imperishable [crown, eternal life, from God]." A green light,
therefore, to the new race invented by Christ in which the first is
the one who makes himself last of all and serves all.
[Translation by ZENIT]
This page is the work of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and
Mary
