The Book of Wisdom, where our first reading comes from, was written almost half a century before the time of Jesus. But the words can be directly applied to Jesus and the way his enemies plotted his torture and death.

     Our second reading from St. James explains the reasons for those words from “the wicked”, as the first readings call them.

“Where jealously and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice.” A jealous person is often envious, suspicious and distrustful. And selfish ambition often leads to greed, deceit, lies, and abuse. The chief priests and the Pharisees were both of these. They were jealous of Jesus, and full of selfish ambition. St. James, and Jesus in today’s Gospel, give us the remedy for such thoughts and actions. That remedy is wisdom. However, we must be careful. People often confuse wisdom with knowledge. Knowledge is a purely human trait. Knowledge is learned, and can be used for good, and can also be used for bad. Knowledge is often used in the pursuit of that “Selfish ambition”.

St James, speaking of wisdom, however, says: “Wisdom from above is first of all pure, peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits.” Wisdom cannot be learned. It is a gift from God and can only be obtained when we are enlightened by the Holy Spirit by the grace of God.

     Knowledge——-sometimes leads to sin. Wisdom——only leads to holiness.

     In today’s Gospel, Jesus was teaching his disciples. This was the second time he foretold of his death and resurrection to them. But they didn’t understand. They hadn’t been given the gift of divine wisdom yet. Their minds were still thinking only with human knowledge and so they were arguing among themselves who was more important. They failed to see Jesus’ call to be servants. The disciples and Jesus had two different ideas of service and how to achieve greatness. What a shocking, but profound lesson it had to have been for the disciples when Jesus placed that child in front of them. In today’s society we place children first and we would do anything to help a child. But in Palestine in Jesus’ time that was not so. Children were last. They were simply disregarded. Children had no social status until they matured. In fact, in both Greek and Aramaic the words child and servant were synonymous.

     Jesus told his disciples and told us, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all, and the servant of all.” The Apostles eventually gained that divine wisdom and followed in Jesus’ footsteps, even to deaths of martyrdom.

 All the saints through the centuries serve as examples of people who have given their lives as servants of God. Two of the more recent dedicated servants that come to mind are Fr. Damien, who in the late 1800’s served the last sixteen years of his life caring for the lepers on the island of Molokai; serving over 600 of them as their priest, doctor, house builder, and gravedigger; knowing fully well when he went there that he was very likely to acquire the disease himself, which he eventually did.  Secondly, Mother Theresa, who spent her entire adult life serving the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta, all the while inspiring thousands of others to follow her lead. And of course, all our priests, including Fr. Jaimie, who have taken on serving God’s people as their life’s work.

     But God doesn’t expect all of us to become priests or spend our lives in the slums around the world. But we are all called to serve in some way. Physically, spiritually, or financially. As good Catholics, we admire and encourage those who are called to those very dedicated ways of services. We pray for our priests and our missionaries in foreign lands. We try to help them financially, according to our means.  God expects us to share with others from the abundance he has given us whether that be time, talent or resources.

     This weekend we celebrate catechetical Sunday. We have the opportunity at the 11:00 Mass to call out and recognize those among us who have responded to the call to be a servant in the form of catechists. But catechetical Sunday should be a reminder to all of us of our responsibility, by virtue of our baptism, to pass on the faith and be witnesses of Christ to all we meet, by our words and by our actions. May we all pray for the spiritual wisdom to answer God’s call of service in whatever form he asks of us.