Fluent Essays

Madonnas fourth Franciscan Value is:  Education for Truth and Service. What does being educated for truth and service mean to you?  The course materials provide food for thought about the meaning and importantce of service and about what the call to service, in the context of the Franciscan values, does – and does not – imply. In Module 14, we discussed implications of authentic service and identified possible distortions of service. We do not see such distortions in Jesus’ example: while going to the extent of death in service for the human beings so loved by God, he nevertheless is strong in standing up against those who would exploit and oppress. And note how MLK says that it is not seeking to EXCEL that is problematic: it is what we seek to excel IN. Identify and discuss a point from the materials in these modules that you found especially significant. Then, reflect upon your own “call to service.” Have you thought of your personal life path as a call to service? How do you envision the connections between your life choices/professional choices and service? Note that you do not have to have a career or be in a service profession in order to be of service. Sometimes quite ordinary things can make a difference in the lives of others. In light of what you have explored in this course, reflect upon how your convictions about your chosen profession or course in life have changed, deepened, been enlarged, etc. What do you identify as your own distinctive gift to give others? What will you carry with you from this course into your own service of others? Religious Roots of Service Interestingly, unlike with the value of justice or of reverence for creation, there is not a great deal in the Old Testament that APPEARS to directly relate to the value of SERVICE. Its importance is more implicit than explicit. There is one section of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah (the section known as Second Isaiah, or Deutero-Isaiah) that contains four so-called “Servant Songs”: 42:1-4; 49:1-6; 50:4-9; and 52:13-53:12. These passages are about the “Servant of the Lord,” a figure who seems to be specially chosen and designated by God to carry out a special God-given task or mission to the people. In the last of these four passages, the servant is seen to be a “Suffering Servant,” whose suffering is used by God for the salvation of others. Because of this, the earliest Christians applied these passages to Jesus. They were struggling to understand the meaning of what had happened to him, and found meaning in these texts from their Scriptures that described how the Servant carried out God’s will by giving himself in service for others – a description that seemed very apt when applied to Jesus. There are a couple of places in the Gospels where Jesus speaks of service. In Matthew, chapter 20, the mother of James and John has come to Jesus and asked that her sons might sit in places of honor beside him in his kingdom; he has replied that this is not his to give. He goes on to say, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mt. 20:25-28). (“Son of Man” is a phrase used by Jesus in the Gospels to refer to himself.) In the parallel passage in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus says, “For who is greater: the one seated at table or the one who serves? Is it not the one seated at table? But I am among you as the one who serves” (Lk. 22:27). Jesus’ disciples seem to share a mistaken impression that his goal is to achieve a military victory for his homeland of Israel against their hated Roman overlords; they are looking forward to their own greatness through sharing in his resulting victory and glory. Jesus needs to correct their false ideals. In the Kingdom of God, greatness is not about wielding power over others (“lording it over them”). Rather, in GOD’S Kingdom, greatness is about SERVING others. This would have been a total inversion of values in Jesus’s – or any other – culture. It totally contradicts our usual, self-centered assumptions. But for Jesus, the ultimate “greatness” is serving others, even to the point of giving one’s life for them. Service is what he is all about, and it is what he expects from his followers. Service is emphasized in a very dramatic way in the Gospel of John. At his last supper with his disciples on the night before he died, Jesus took a towel and a basin of water, and washed his disciples’ feet. After doing this, he said, “‘Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me “teacher” and “master,” and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do’” (Jn. 13:12-15). The washing of someone’s feet upon their entering a house or at the beginning of a banquet was a way of honoring an important person and was a customary practice in the ancient Middle East (as it still is, in some parts of the world). But performing it was one of the duties of a wife for her husband or of a slave for his or her master. In other words, it was customarily performed by someone who was in a subordinate position for one who was a social superior. Jesus does something that is totally unheard of; in fact, it scandalizes his disciple, Peter, who is so upset that he tries at first to prevent Jesus from washing his feet. Jesus demonstrates – through actions that speak much louder than words – that in God’s Kingdom, no one is “superior” and no one is “inferior,” and that his followers are to go to the extreme extent possible in order to truly serve others. In these stories, Jesus is explicitly subverting cultural assumptions about what constitutes human worth. The worth of the person is not dependent on social status: one in a socially “superior” position is not of more worth than a social “inferior.” Under God, ALL are called to serve others, and doing so is not a sign of inferiority, because all human beings are equal in dignity. Jesus explicitly shows that true greatness consists in serving others. Service is a form of personal excellence because it fulfills our call to imitate God in caring for one another. “We have a special obligation to make ourselves the neighbor of every person without exception and to actively assist them when we meet them in the path of our lives” (Gaudium et Spes, 27). Service must be something that is freely given. When it is forced or demanded, it becomes a form of oppression. Unfortunately, Jesus’ words have sometimes been twisted to support the oppression of the vulnerable, by convincing them that “good” Christians submit and obey their “superiors” meekly. But this is not the model that Jesus himself presented. He did not allow people to jerk him around or treat him as a “doormat.” He was strong and courageous in confronting evil and standing up for what was right, even when it cost him his life. His actions model a mode of service to others that is a RESISTANCE against evil and against the exploitation of fellow human beings. He calls for serving others because he truly cares about PERSONS. Service and Abuse Christians are all too painfully aware of human failure and sinfulness. These are especially serious when they cause suffering inflicted, intentionally or not, by those who claim to act for God, for the church, or for good causes. Unfortunately, this has happened all too often. Because of this, it is crucial to distinguish “good” and “bad,” positive and negative implications of the meaning of service. Service is supposed to mean offering support and assistance to others in order to make it possible for both giver and receiver to achieve authentic human fulfillment. It should be both freely given and freely received. It should be carried out in a way that honors the human dignity of all parties. It should not lead to the undermining of human dignity or freedom. If it does so, it has turned into a form of abuse. Such abuse may take several forms. Service may be a means of oppression and exploitation. That is, the requirement of serving may be imposed arbitrarily upon a vulnerable or exploited person or group – and then justified as being something virtuous. The poor, marginalized, and, especially, women have suffered such oppression, often being taught that it was “God’s will” for them to sacrifice themselves for others at the cost of their own welfare. Slavery is an extreme example of the oppression caused by enforced service (servitude). The history of European colonial expansion in the Americas is another. The Christianity that was preached to the indigenous peoples emphasized the suffering of Jesus, and his meekness and obedience in serving others. In other words, the obedient, serving, suffering Jesus was held up as a model for the already oppressed people to pattern their lives after. Just as Jesus had submitted meekly, the conquered peoples were told to be meekly subject to their overlords and to accept their hardships as God’s will; they could be assured that God loved them and would reward them in heaven for their virtue and submission. Thus the meaning of the gospel was distorted into a justification of their suffering and a strong persuasion for them to submit to their lot in life. Unfortunately, Christianity has too often overemphasized expectations of service from those who are already culturally and socially conditioned to deny their own well-being and autonomy for the sake of serving others. In contrast to this, service is something that should be freely given, not forced, coerced, or extracted from someone to the detriment of their human surviving and thriving. If imposing expectations of service can be a form of exploitation – denying human dignity and well-being – the correlative problem is inappropriate subservience on the part of the one from whom the service is expected or demanded. Unfortunately, it is often the case that the “victim” is powerless to change the situation. But it can also be the case that this person passively submits to being exploited in this way, perhaps because it gives them a feeling of being somehow important. Knowingly and culpably failing to resist abuse of oneself makes one complicit in that abuse. There are additional, more subtle problematic implications. Deeds performed in the name of “doing good” can sometimes be performed from motivations that are quite self-serving and self-centered. Serving may be a means boosting one’s own ego and feelings of self-worth and importance. It can also be a means of manipulating and dominating others: doing something for them in order to make them feel beholden, to impose one’s own agenda on them, or to influence them toward choices or actions determined by the “giver.” (Have you ever had the experience of someone “helping” you in a way you do not want or giving unwanted advice because they think they know better than you what is good for you? You might have felt as if they were trying to control you or to impose their wishes on you.) This sort of “service” may be more about the giver projecting their own views and desires on the one served (even when great personal sacrifice may be involved) than about what is really in the long-term best interest of the recipient. Serving may even go to the extreme of undercutting the recipient’s self-determination and self-agency by taking away from them the opportunity of deciding and acting for themselves. The recipient is prevented from exercising their own personal strengths and autonomy. These distortions have the impact of undermining the dignity, autonomy, freedom, and authentic self-actualization of both giver and receiver. Another possible problem is a misplaced attitude of “superiority” on the part of one “doing good” or rendering service. It is as if the giver feels that they are somehow “better” or more fortunate because they think they have something that the receiver needs and does not have. Conscious or not, there may be a feeling of regarding the recipient as somehow “less than” and the giver as their “savior.” All of these are distortions of what authentic service is supposed to be. Service should never be a means of oppression, exploitation, manipulation, self-aggrandizement, or passive submission. True service should never be an abusive undercutting of human dignity. True service happens when both the giver and receiver see each other on the same level of their common humanity, acknowledge their interdependence, and honor each other’s dignity. Service should be an enactment of human solidarity – celebrating the worth of each person, recognizing their unique gifts and contributions, standing with them in their need, and powerfully resisting their dehumanization. Reflections on Service Our fundamental human call is to live in relationship with one another and to be of service to one another. Jesus’ words remind us of the centrality of service. In the “Last Judgment” story in Matthew 25, he is explicit that the way we treat our fellow human beings, the ones he calls his brothers and sisters, equates to the way we treat him. That treatment is to be SERVICE: feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger [read: alien], clothing the naked, giving shelter to the homeless, caring for the sick, visiting the imprisoned. (These acts of service are referred to as the “works of mercy” in some Christian traditions.) Jesus himself is the supreme model of service to others, ministering to those in need throughout his life and going even to the extent of giving his life for the sake of others. Christians throughout the ages, as well as people of many faiths, have recognized the importance of serving others in fulfilling our human calling. Service became the key to Saint Francis’ conversion, when he realized profound meaning, joy, and union with Christ in touching, embracing, and nursing the lepers. And although he did not actually write the famous “Peace Prayer of Saint Francis,” it expresses well his foundational orientation toward serving others. Chapter 2 of Gaudium et Spes reminds us of this fundamental vocation, as well. (I encourage you to go back and reread this chapter of the document.) Paragraph 25 states it explicitly: “So we humans, in order to fully discover ourselves, must donate ourselves to one another in love.” Paragraph 27 lays out our responsibilities to our fellow human beings explicitly, centering around its affirmation that “we have a special obligation to make ourselves the neighbor of every person without exception and to actively assist them when we meet them in the path of our lives.” And paragraph 33 brings it full circle: “The lifestyle, friendships, and social engagements of Jesus point the way for us: we are to live as one Body, members of one another, rendering mutual service to each other based on our gifts.” This is a call we hear echoed today in the words and example of Pope Francis, as well as in those of Martin Luther King from only a few months before he died in 1968. MLK, The Drum Major Instinct As the note at the top of the attached speech makes clear, Martin Luther King delivered this sermon just two months before he was killed. Just as with his Mountain-Top speech, it seems to reflect a premonition of his own death. The truth of the matter, I believe, is that King knew very well that he risked his life every day in taking a stand for justice. This speech is included at the end of this course precisely because it reminds us of so many of the themes we have dealt with and ends with a stirring reminder of the call to service. MLK The Drum Major Instinct.pdf