Servant

Today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 16:13-19) consists of Peter’s profession of faith in Christ and our Lord’s multifaceted response. To this day, Christians disagree among themselves about the implications of Christ’s words in this passage, particularly as they have been applied to the Bishop of Rome.

What fuels this disagreement primarily is an argument about power in the Church: who has it and how it is to be used.

The real problem, however, is having an argument about power in the Church in the first place.

In a later passage (Matthew 20:25-28), our Lord warns against power struggles within the body of believers:

But Jesus called them unto him, and said,
Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles
exercise dominion over them,
and they that are great
exercise authority upon them.

But it shall not be so among you:
but whosoever will be great among you,
let him be your minister;
And whosoever will be chief among you,
let him be your servant:
Even as the Son of man came
not to be ministered unto,
but to minister,
and to give his life a ransom for many.

Peter got the point (eventually), as he says in today’s first reading (1 Peter 5:2-4):

Feed the flock of God which is among you,
taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint,
but willingly;
not for filthy lucre,
but of a ready mind;
Neither as being lords over God's heritage,
but being examples to the flock.
And when the chief Shepherd shall appear,
ye shall receive a crown of glory
that fadeth not away.

Sadly, just like other people, Christians often entangle themselves in power games: explicitly or implicitly, as part of a formal structure or just within one’s web of relationships, imposing oneself on others or rebelling against others.

But, as both our Lord and Saint Peter warn us, it should not be so. Our primary focus should not be on power, but on service.

These readings invite us to consider first of all how we as individuals relate to others within the body of believers, the body of Christ.

Are we focused primarily on power (ours or others’) rather than on our being servants? Also, is our service toward others done grudgingly or with ulterior motives?

Our Lord calls each of us to serve and to do it willingly and gladly in imitation of him who “did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”