IT'S YOUR MINISTRY II Matt 20:17-28

The bold mother of James and John and her sons need to learn humility. The other disciples who were indignant also needed to learn humility. We all need to learn humility. In the exercise of your ministries, humility is as essential as water for living fish. You should not be so arrogant as to make the priest feel irrelevant. The priest too has his own ministry: for example, to guide and persuade, to teach and lead, to affirm and challenge. There are certain prerogatives the priest has that the laity don’t: for example, changing bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus during our Eucharistic celebration. The sacramental forgiveness of sin. As lay persons you fulfill your ministries while gaining strength from the priest’s ministry. And this takes humility – on both sides. We are all the People of God; though many parts we are one body. Therefore we must work in tandem, cooperating with one another, not trying to win in the game of one-upmanship. And this takes humility. The priest must never dominate the people, especially with guilt feelings. And the people should never ignore or rebel against the priest, especially with cheap and petty gossip. Rather the priest’s and laity’s ministries should mesh in mutual helpfulness, in mutual enabling, in mutual cooperation. Stephen Covey in his book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, says that a person with a win-win attitude sees life as a cooperative not a competitive arena. We wound one another with a refusal to understand and cooperate. Joan Chittister in her book, Wisdom Distilled from the Daily, says, “We need to cooperate with others not depend on them.” Humility is essential for cooperative ministries.