Pride and Humility

I'm going backwards, since yesterday was spent finishing up last minute work before flying home. So here we go, for Wednesday, 3/7's readings.

In the first reading, the people of Judah are plotting to destroy Jeremiah by his own words - which initially led me to feel that the better Gospel partner for this story would have been one where the Pharisees are trying to trick Jesus into saying something heretical. However, upon closer inspection of the gospel reading, and of Jeremiah's response to these people's malice, pride and humility emerge as clear themes to me.

Jeremiah is a humble man, doing the works of God, putting even his own life at stake. In fact, he even prayed for these people, that God might not be angry at them, and is now asking the same mercy to be shown to him. Trust in the Lord, right there.

In the gospel, we see the mother of the sons of Zebedee being, well, a typical mom. She's anxious and wants the best for her children: "Can they please sit at your right and at your left?" She may have great intentions, but this is quite a prideful request that she is making. The other disciples start arguing, maybe because they want to be in those seats of honor, maybe because they can't believe how indignant the mother of the sons of Z were being. Either way, Jesus puts a stop to it:
"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."

I kind of feel that everyone should be a server at a restaurant for like, a day in their life. Heck, even just work in the service industry. When I worked at the movie theater and at a restaurant, I experienced a LOT of very demanding customers who would often express anger at me for things that were either 1) not my fault or 2) company policy. I remember being yelled at on my first day at Friendly's because we did not serve avocados. This experience of being a server DEFINITELY tried my nerves - multi-tasking is not my gift, and that job required a lot of it. However, there is such great humility found in serving others. Essentially, your wages rely on their opinion of you. And when you may want to throw down a guest's food or tell them to wipe up their own mess, you need to swallow that pride and smile. The frustration resulting from being put in such positions may remind you of how far you have yet to go in your voyage toward Sainthood, but it can also shed some perspective onto how Jesus (and Jeremiah, or any of the prophets, really) must have felt. You are serving people who, for whatever reason, are not being nice to you, and you need to respond in a loving manner. Keeping this in mind can 1) help us to treat our servers nicely when we next go out to eat, and also 2) help us develop a deeper appreciate for Jesus' love for us, as we are often guilty of being ungrateful for our many blessings.

Jesus does make it clear numerous times that there is no room for pride in Heaven. So let us pray that we can strive to seek the will of God in all that we do, to trust in Him more deeply, push our selfish desires aside, and to make our lives a living offering to Him.