Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
In the Gospel today Jesus impresses on His disciples how different their lives of discipleship must be than anything that they have experienced heretofore. They are arguing amongst themselves about who is the greatest, who is most likely to succeed. Jesus has to remind them that, “If anyone wishes to be first, he will be last of all and servant of all.” (Mark 9:35) For Jesus, to be a servant is not a punishment or a failure, it is a core tenant of who He is, and who He invites us to be.
One of the titles of the Holy Father is “Servus Servorum Dei,” the Servant of the Servants of God. To be a good servant of our loving God is the greatest achievement we can aspire to in our life of faith. This focus on servanthood goes against every cultural grain, and thus it is one we must return to over and over again to renew our commitment to this radical way of living. We must continually turn away from the pursuit of self-aggrandizement and popular affirmation, and towards the gift of Christ that is in each person we have the opportunity to serve.
We are followers of Jesus, the servant who washed the feet of His disciples, who placed His own needs and wishes last.. St. James observes that so many of the world’s ills, war, hatred, jealousy, are products of our pride, our desire to be first. The “wisdom from above,” wants something so much better for us and in the Gospel today Jesus teaches us how to attain it.
I am honored to be living out my call to serve here at Carmel Mission, and to be a servant to you and needs of our community. I invite you to join me this week in considering now how we can continue to better serve the vulnerable in our community and our world.
I wish you and your loved ones continued blessings of good health, renewed hope and great peace,
Fr. Paul
Please take a moment to read our Carmel Mission Weekly Bulletin.