Happy 16th Birthday Catherine Therese!!

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Although you'll never read this my sweet Catherine, I love you. 16 years ago you changed our life forever. All of your siblings have done this in their own way but you have done so in a very special way. You have made me more empathetic, compassionate, and much more prayerful. Your smile lights up the world around you and we are all blessed by it.  It's not easy living with a saint. You remind me of my weakness and limited time on this earth. You challenge me to go deeper within myself and find what the Lord is trying to teach me...usually patience. You are made in His image and likeness but He uses you so that I can see my own beauty, goodness, and shortcomings.  You struggle mightily against me with every bath, diaper change, and wardrobe change. I struggle mightily with Him against all the changes He wills in my life. You depend on me and your mom for even the simplest of things. You teach me to depend on Him for everything and not rely on my on strength. You teach me that I
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Lord, make me an unworthy servant.

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Today's Gospel may sound like fingernails on a chalkboard to our modern ears. This message is directly opposed to the culture in which we have been reared. The world tells us to seek recognition for our efforts, even if it was something we were supposed to do anyway.

Our society, with it's twisted sense of fairness, reads this Gospel passage with arrogance and places it aside. We might hear our society say, "This must have been what it was like back then, cruel, heartless, and demanding but no so in our day. This servant should have rights too. The fair thing is for the master to serve the servant after his hard day of labor in the field." And thus the message is lost.

The Lord is telling us that we must seek to serve and not count the cost or look for a reward. He is not placing an unrealistic demand upon us. He himself showed us what he meant by these words. "...[He] rose from supper, laid aside his garments and girded himself with a towel." He took the form of a servant saying, "I have come not to be served but to serve." If we are to be like Him, we must serve and not hunt for laurels. The Lord has done so much for us, how can we say anything but, "We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty."

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