to move them. They do everything in order to be seen by people: they wear very wide bands of the law around their
foreheads, and robes with large tassels. They enjoy the first places at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues, and
they like being greeted in the marketplace, and being called ‘Master’ by the people. But you, do not let yourselves be called Master,
because you have only one Master, and all of you are brothers and sisters. Neither should you call anyone on earth Father, because
you have only one Father, he who is in heaven. Nor should you be called Leader, because Christ is the only Leader for you. Let the
greatest among you be the servant of all. For whoever makes himself great shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall
be made great.
Reflection:
Borrowing the famous line from the movie Godfather, I
must confess that, in today’s first reading, God makes us an
offer we can’t refuse! He invites us to reason together with Him!
But how can we, the wretched mortals, reason with God, the
highest Good? Where do we begin, if at all we can? Mercifully,
it is He who begins for us, that too, with a delightful promise
of cancelling all our debts and making us clean as a whistle! His
is an offer full of life; totally unlike the death-threat in Godfather!
What kind of dialog we invite others to—be it between
nations at the United Nations or neighbors or religions? I am
afraid ours is often Godfatherlike: force-fitting the other into
our terms and holding them to ransom. It should ideally be like
that of God-the-Father: unilateral declaration of amnesty so that
the other comes to the table with a joyous spring on their feet.
© Copyright Bible Diary 2022