TO BE GREAT WE SERVE OTHERS

TO BE GREAT WE SERVE OTHERS Fr Luke A Veronis   Putting Faith into action. This is what we’re going to do today in our Saints Constantine and Helen Church. Saint James says, ‘Faith without works is dead.” We show what we believe by what we do and how we live. This is what we’re trying to do today with our Church Family. It’s a day when our faith becomes action, when our prayers take on hands and feet. I hope everyone joins us after the Divine Liturgy as our Church Family packages 20,000 meals in partnership with Rise Against Hunger. Twenty thousand meals! It seems like an incredible number and yet it’s so simple for us to do. What is even more incredible is what this number represents - lives touched, hunger eased, hope given. And we will be a part of this. Today calls us not only to action, however, but to awareness. We need to remember that hunger is not just “somewhere out there,” in some far away poor country but it exists right here all around us. In our own country, one of the wealthiest in the world, millions struggle with food insecurity. Families quietly worry about how they will feed their children. Elderly people ration meals. Parents skip dinner so their kids can eat. This is happening even in our own community. Of course, globally, the reality is even more staggering. Entire communities living day to day, unsure where their next meal will come from. We see every summer when our church goes to Project Mexico and meet the people there. The question is not whether hunger exists. Of course it does, all around us. The deeper question each of us need to ask ourselves is “Do we see it? And how do we respond to it?” In today’s Gospel, the disciples are arguing about something that sounds very familiar to us in the world. Who is the greatest? And how does our Lord answer? He doesn’t scold his followers for their arrogance. He doesn’t lecture them about their worldly ambition. Instead, Jesus Christ turns everything upside down by saying, “If anyone desires to be first, they shall be last of all and servant of all.” Greatness, in the Kingdom of God, is not about power or authority. It’s not about recognition or fame. It’s not about comfort and ease. It’s all about service for one another! And this is where our work today becomes deeply spiritual. Packaging meals is not just a charitable activity. We want to make it a Eucharistic act. We want to understand it as living the liturgy after the liturgy. Think about what we do at every Divine Liturgy. We take bread and wine, simple gifts of creation, and we offer them to God. Then God accepts our humble gifts and transforms them into life itself – His own Body and Blood. Today, we will take simple ingredients - rice, beans, and nutrients - and through our love, intention, and prayers, these gifts will become something holy. They will become a sign that someone, somewhere, is not forgotten. We see them. We love them. We serve them! Today’s Gospel reading, however, challenges us to go even deeper. It’s not enough to serve once a year by packaging 20,000 meals. We are to live continually as servants of one another. We want to cultivate a way of seeing the world where we are constantly aware of who is hungry, who is struggling, who is being overlooked, and who is carrying a burden silently As we cultivate such eyes to see as Jesus sees, then we won’t remain the same, we won’t remain indifferent to the needs of others. Here lies our great challenge. Be careful of becoming comfortable for our comfort anesthetizes us. Yes, it’s great to come to church, to pray, to fast, and to give… and yet, we can still remain blind or unaware of the suffering around us. This was the terrible sin in the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus. The Rich Man didn’t even notice or give any attention to the suffering Lazarus who sat right outside his gate. Christ is always drawing our attention outward. He places a child in the midst of the disciples, someone small and easily ignored, and says, “Whoever receives one of these little ones in My name receives Me.” In other words, “If you want to find Me, look among the vulnerable. If you want to serve Me, serve those in need.” As we package 20,000 meals, I want us to imagine the hands that will receive this food. A desperate mother. A hungry child. For the children receiving these meals, they may never know our names but they will feel our love. More importantly, they will experience the love of Christ working through us. This is where everything comes together. We are blessed not so that we keep God’s blessings for ourselves and our own. We are blessed so that we bless others. This is what it means to fulfill our role as ambassadors of Christ. We receive God’s countless blessings so that we might become channels of God’s grace. Remember the words of St. John Chrysostom. “If you can’t find Christ in the beggar at the church door, you will not find Him in the chalice.” Here lies the heart of the Gospel. This is what it means to be great. So, let’s take today seriously as the beginning of something new. Let’s not just package meals but open our eyes. Let’s not just give two hours of our time but reflect on how we can live and share our many blessings with others. Let’s not just serve for a day but become servants each and every day. Because in the end, Christ is very clear: Greatness is not measured by what we have. It is measured by how we love and how we give. Love, itself, is always expressed in humble service. May God bless the work of our hands today. May He multiply these meals as He multiplied the loaves and fishes. And may He transform not only those who receive this food… but each one of us who offers it.