Sep 11 Wed
Should I serve?
There is something pejorative when we hear about serving. To serve is often seen as a humiliation, something inferior, which places a man who does serve on a level some degree below human dignity.
Nevertheless, Jesus himself said that he had come to serve, not to be served, and told them to serve one another. To serve, then, is not to do something demeaning; nor is it in any way beneath human dignity. The condition of a servant does not bear any kind of stigma; service is not humiliation. Joseph of Nazareth did nothing except to serve his own with his love, and his neighbors with his work. Of no unusual significance or extraordinary importance, his work, not even praised in the Gospel, is what work should be for all men –a means of livelihood and a source of learning. His daily tasks strengthened the life of Joseph.
Service is not servility. A mother does not feel humbled through having to serve her own children, or a wife through serving her husband. When one loves, service is not disgusting, the very work itself is loved. When one sees in one’s neighbor the image and likeness of God, to serve him does not humiliate. When one does a job joyfully, the question does not even arise.
Servility, on the other hand, is born when one believes himself to be so great that he should not serve others. He would think himself debased by lowering himself in the eyes of his inferiors. Nevertheless, because he is obliged, he serves, but against his will. Neither the humble person nor one who is in love is servile. Only the egoist, the self-interested, or the proud man can become servile.
It is not easy for the head of a family to fulfill his duty if he does not want to serve unselfishly his own people, seeking above all their good. He must not see himself as being humbled merely because service to one’s own involves giving over the necessary time to the family, even though such service might also imply cutting back somewhat on friends, entertainment, and social or business arrangements.
Today not even those of us who call ourselves Christians – which is to say disciples of Christ – seem very much inclined to the virtue of humility. Perhaps this is the reason for the deterioration of standards in so many trades and professions, which are carried on without love, without a spirit of service, without any real care for “doing a good job.” A Christian ought to know that he is no more than his Master. And if Jesus said he had come not to be served but to serve, then to be the servant of others ought to be what Christians aspire to. We have an obligation toward those whom God has put in our care. Thus, St. John Paul II: “O Christ! Let me be made a servant, and allow me to remain one . . . Make me a servant!”
Excerpts from F. Suarez
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