767 ELM STREET * ROCKY HILL * CONNECTICUT 06067
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767 ELM STREET * ROCKY HILL * CONNECTICUT 06067 |
           
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….there is deep down within all of us an instinct. It’s a kind of drum major instinct-a desire to be out in front, a desire to lead the parade, a desire to be first…. These are the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, jr. from his “Drum Major Sermon”. He raises for us a fundamental issue of our being human. Do we wish to serve or be served? And who we will serve if we choose to serve? These types of questions are at the heart of the challenge of today’s gospel. Jesus comes to John the Baptist to be baptized in the Jordan River. At first John recoils from Jesus’ request to be baptized. But Jesus insists that he too must be baptized! Why is that so? Wasn’t Jesus sinless? These are good questions and perhaps we can understand the situation in this way. Jesus was sinless as our confession of faith admits, but there is another reason why he accepted, nay demanded, baptism. He is modeling for others what they are called to if they accept baptism and if they want to be his disciples. Modeling to one’s students is a critical teaching tool. But Jesus is doing even more than that. He is being plunged down into the “waters”, as the Scripture states, the “waters” of chaos and destruction. By this is he is telling us that God stands with us in solidarity us in our world where chaos and destruction are experienced. God is the fellow sufferer with us. But there is even more than that! Jesus is telling us that through this entrance into dying new life will come. He will arise out of the “waters” of chaos. In his faithfulness to the Father is his ministry, in service to the Kingdom and human beings, he will be given new life as those will who follow him! So God is a God of life and not of death. Is this not what is symbolized by the Jordan River? It was by the Israelites passing through the “waters” of the Jordan that they entered the new life in the promised land. So, for his followers it is the same. To follow the Lord, to be his disciple, one is called to serve in a manner for others without regard for personal gain, even to the point of dying; in that one finds real life. True enough; and we can see what typifies such a life. For Isaiah, the one to come is one who leads by example; not by putting people in further distress, but by bringing peace and justice that comes from the inner peace of one who has surrendered one’s will to God. No longer caught up in the need for the “good opinion of others’, fitting into one’s culture, and preserving one’s life, a person is free to live unreservedly at the service of the Kingdom of God; bringing to all people the message and reality of God’s saving will. No longer intimidated by the fear of consequences, even death, one can live freely for love and in love with God, others and the creation. In this kind of life we accept the call to make visible the servanthood of Christ to the world. The need is not to be at the front of the parade but to accept it if it happens and trust that God will direct you on how to use this position. Dr. King came to this conclusion when he stated: If any of you are around when I have to meet my day, I don’t want a long funeral. Tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel peace Prize-that isn’t important. Tell them not to mention that I have three or four hundred others awards-that’s not important…I’d like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King, Jr. tried to give his life serving others. I’d like somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to love somebody….Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I won’t have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind…to be there in love and justice and in truth and in commitment to others, so that we can make of this old world a new world. Such is the essence of our baptismal commitment. Deacon Robert M. Pallotti, D.Min. Return to Saint James Home Page |