Don Bosco Philippines South Province

Reflection on Wednesday, Second Week of Lent, 28 February 2024, PH Chapel, Talamban

The Gospel passage today (Mt 20:17-28) highlights the importance of servant-hood as a path to greatness in the eyes of God. This teaching of Jesus, who is foreshadowed in the person of the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah, was occasioned by the wishful request of a woman, who was the mother of James and John. She asked that when Jesus would finally reign as king, the two most honoured seats beside him be reserved by order for her two sons.

Although Jesus might have been surprisingly dismayed by what she was asking – an outrightly ambitious request – he chose not to embarrass his disciples’ mother. Instead of turning the petition down he turned to James and John and tried to test their willingness to take the enormous challenge of following him up to his death on the cross. And when the rest of the ten disciples reacted indignantly at the two aggressive disciples, Jesus intervened by teaching them patiently the evangelical path to greatness: “Whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant.”

For us who promised and professed to follow Christ more closely, this is our 4G, our golden gateway to greatness before God. For in fact Jesus himself whom we worship today as Lord passed through it ahead of us saying: “The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve… and to give his life as a ransom for the many.”

May our encounter with Jesus in our Liturgy today lead us to reflect on how much of a servant we have become in the community of Christ’s disciples. GiGsss!

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