The Catholic Calendar for Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Wednesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time
St. Bede the Venerable, priest, doctor of the Church
St. Gregory VII, pope
St. Mary Magdalene de'Pazzi, virgin

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Sirach 36:1, 4-5a, 10-17
Psalm 79:8, 9, 11 and 13
Mark 10:32-45

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

"Whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant;
whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all" (Mark 10:43-44)

When we attempt to align ourselves with the Word of Jesus in the Gospels, we need the assistance of the Holy Spirit to aid our understanding in making Jesus' words a living reality in our lives. When Jesus speaks about putting ourselves last in the power ranking--not setting ourselves above others--it isn't just soft sentiment. There's a particular purpose why we need to adopt this mentality.

When we mentally set ourselves above others, we create an identity for ourselves which we need to maintain and up-keep. We begin to feed our ego rather than our soul. Fear of loss of face, or fear of being 'discovered' keeps us stuck in a cycle of serving our ego. When we are placed in a position of power, it is sometimes easy to fall into this trap.

However, the challenge in a position of power is to remain free, not to be afraid of loss, not to build an illusion of ourselves that we feel we must keep up at all costs. The challenge is to look at our position as a gift from God, where, for a particular period of time we are called to serve others through our gifts and talents. When we realise the power is not our own, that is when it can be used for beneficial purposes -- this is real power -- the power to heal and to transform.

- Cliodhna Doyle
(cliadoyle at hotmail dot com)

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