Today's Good News Reflection

What the disciples wanted to know in the Gospel reading today touches a desire within all of us. We want to be important. We need to feel valued. We want to be indispensable. But what does Jesus think about this?

He raised up the lowly many times. And he sometimes referred to the value of little children as an example of what is truly important. Do young kids know they're valued? If they're loved they do. Intuitively, they accept the fact that because they are loved, they are important.

By the time we become adults, most of us have felt diminished by the low self-esteem that others have pushed upon us as they, in their own low self-esteem, tried to raise themselves above us. We try to cope with this by making ourselves feel important, because we believe their poor assessment of us. And so we put our focus on keeping a good image, building a good reputation, and achieving high status.

The opinions of others matter way too much. Their opinions hold us back from being fully who we are as children of God.

It happens to men who desire the priesthood motivated by the fact that others will automatically respect them because of their clerical collar. It happens to women who desire ordination because of a mistaken idea that the Church doesn't value their leadership (an idea that in fact might have been generated by someone disvaluing their leadership). It happens to laity who build themselves up in ministries for the sake of the power and authority it gives them.

And yet the Church teaches that priests and others who have authority are really the servants of all those whom they're called to serve. Value comes from service, not rank.

None of us are valued the way we should be, not completely. However, there's no need to fight to establish our personal value, because we already have it! Our significance comes from the Lord. Are we being who God wants us to be? Are we doing what God wants us to do? Therein is our true importance.

For example, although I'm not a priest, I rely on the Holy Spirit to help me write these Good News Reflections and thus they serve God's people as effectively as good homilies at Mass. Being a lay woman has not held me back from being a leader in the Church. Although it's true that sometimes I don't get invited to give parish missions because I am not a priest or a deacon or a nun, nevertheless I have no reason to want to be anyone other than the servant God created me to be, in the times and the culture and the Catholic Church into which he has placed me.

(I'm so glad that God put me to work in ministry the same time the Internet was developed! Come, let's have a virtual retreat together. Download my podcast of the retreat I gave in New Zealand in 2010: gnm.org/podcasts-NewZealand/.)

We are all indispensable to God. The gifts he's given us and the ministries to which he calls us are extremely valuable to his plans for his kingdom, whether we're clergy or laity, male or female, homebound or working our way up the ladder of worldly success. No one else can do what you can do the way you can do it. God created you with his own idea of what's important. He has valued you since the moment of your conception!

If you need help figuring out what your important part is in God's plans, download my e-book "Knowing God's Will and Doing it Well" from http://catholicdr.com/e-books/knowing-gods-will/