“I have come to do My Father’s will. I obeyed My parents, I obeyed My tormentors and now I obey the priests.” (Saint Faustina, Diary 535).
I have been reflecting on the people who serve – basically the servants. In modern times, servants are not a popular or even a well-understood idea. After all, in modern times it is very unusual to have a human being who is referred to as a servant.
Of course, the King has his servants and perhaps the very rich have “staff” who run their households, but this reference to “servants” is particularly outdated in a modern world. And yet, there are many people who work in the services industry or perform services for others who could actually be classified as servants. Any mother who ever cared for her children is in service to them, and thus is effectively their servant. Any priest who attended to the needs of his congregation, is effectively a servant to those people.
And Christ Himself – in putting the salvation of sinful humanity ahead of His own divinity – is effectively my servant...
In fact, Christ revealed to Saint Faustina, and she recorded His revelation in her Diary 535, that He is a servant to priests… “I have come to do My Father’s will. I obeyed My parents, I obeyed My tormentors and now I obey the priests.”
And so, as I have been thinking about Christ, I have been thinking about who could have been called the servant of the Servant of All Humanity – the Son of Man… And as I was reflecting, I came across a passage in the Gospel of Saint Luke… “Jesus went on through cities and villages, preaching and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with Him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.” (Luke 8:1-3).
And I have been thinking about those women who made themselves the servants of God. And I have been thinking about what that would have looked like in reality. You see, those women would have done all the annoying jobs. They would have cooked – not on a beautiful gas or electric stove, but on a fire made with wood. They would have first collected the wood and then cooked the food. Afterwards, they would have carried their crockery down to a lake or a stream and rinsed it in the water, with mud on the hem of their dresses. When the clothes were dirty, they would have washed them – not in an automatic washing machine, but with their bare hands against a rock. And when it was time to travel, and they were weary from the day, they would have got up, picked up their pack and followed Him.
And I have been thinking about that today, as I consider my pride and my unwillingness to serve. For those women who were servants were allowed to sleep in the same campsite as God Himself. And when I look at it like that, I have to stop in wonder – for my God is the Servant of Humanity and my only aim should be to be His servant…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.