If survival is of paramount importance, parents should surely want to arm their children for the future. Definitely an international education and if they cannot afford it, our neighbouring country boasts an excellent education system. Apparently teachers in Malaysia do not teach. Supposedly, I hear, they hand out calling cards for their after-school tuition service. There is money to be made teaching tuition rather than educating the young.
This need to leave behind a legacy for our young makes the Mass of Holy Thursday a powerful teaching moment. Today marks the birth of both the Priesthood and the Eucharist. It may be a good opportunity to speak of the priestly vocation and its vitality to the Eucharist for without the Priesthood, there is no Eucharist.
However, from the Gospel we hear no specific mention of the Institution of the Eucharist. There is nothing of “Take this all of you and eat of it”. Instead, the leader of the pack, Jesus made Himself the servant of the group. He bent low in order to wash the feet of His disciples. In so doing, He was true to His incarnational character for He had emptied Himself of His divinity when He became man.
Today is called Maundy Thursday because it is derived from the Latin word Mandatum, meaning, the mandate that Jesus gave to His disciples—to serve. From Him, we learn that to be great, mighty and powerful is to be a servant of all. Sadly, the word “serve” is cousin to words like servitude, servile, servant, words which connote debasement and without dignity—like our faceless Bangla plantation worker, our Nepali guard and Indonesian maid. In a face-saving culture that prizes personality and celebrityhood, a word like “serve” holds no currency. In fact, service can even be commoditised for when actors or actresses “serve”, it is usually for a photoshoot to increase media presence.
Before the ascent to Calvary, Jesus gives life a meaning which is profoundly counter cultural. To have a life that is full, it is required that we empty ourselves. However, we are accustomed to associate fullness of life with plenitude, with excess and accumulation. Operating out of a deficit mentality, we are fearful that when we divest of ourselves there may be nothing left for us.
However, the purpose of one’s life has to be more than simply oneself. A man who lives only for himself will only be fulfilled to a certain extent. He will be happy but soon it will not be enough. Our present generation shouts the goal of life as self-fulfilment and given that we have everything possible to live a fulfilled life, the irony is that there are even more unhappy people. No one is sadder than someone who lives for himself or herself.
Jesus provided the answer to the question of what legacy we can bequeath our young. Each one of us has this innate sense that holds life to be more than just the self. A mother knows that when she sacrifices for her child. Our young are given the very best in life because we think that only the very best will result in excellence. But the lack of a purpose beyond self-fulfilment does have a crippling effect for without self-transcendence, without sacrifice, the human spirit will definitely languish. When excellence is not fuelled by altruism, it will waste away as selfishness.
According to Stephen Covey, “The first principle of ethical power is Purpose. By purpose, I don't mean your objective or intention—something toward which you are always striving. Purpose is something bigger. It is the picture you have of yourself—the kind of person you want to be or the kind of life you want to lead”.
These days, as the humanity of Christ is thrust into the spotlight, if anything, Jesus reveals that in the depth of our humanity, we are made for a greater purpose than the self. In fact, we live when we serve others. “He who clings to life will lose and he who loses his life for my sake will keep it“. The legacy we want for our young is not measured by their earning capacity or how much they can accumulate or their status. It is not assessed by becoming a Who is Who, a celebrity, a luminary of the glitterati or a political elite. Rather, it is how daring one is to lay down his or her life in the service of others.
To leave a legacy is born of the innate quest for immortality. We all want to be remembered and that is why we leave behind big buildings, endowments or trust funds. The legacy we want to leave for our youths must find its inspiration from the self-sacrificing love of Jesus Christ. In the midst of preparing our children for the future, our greatest gift is to inspire our children to think not of only themselves but also of others. To serve others is the noblest ideal and only when a person dares to embrace servitude that the priestly vocation makes sense for the priesthood of Jesus Christ is born of the legacy of self-sacrifice.
