Got to serve someone

The psalmist in the texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today proclaims “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 124:8) The knowledge of the role of God in our lives to bring, as Paul writes to the Romans, life of righteousness where there once was the death of sin is the background we have to make our daily and sometimes continuous decisions about our enslavement or in less involved language, our direction. Dennis Hamm, S.J. of Creighton University wrestles with the “better translation” of the Greek to “slave” instead of “servant”. Bob Dylan’s lyric that “ you gotta serve someone “ is another reminder that we are in tension between our desire for autonomy and the momentary events in life which seem to draw us to choose directions of virtue or immorality. Friar JudeWinkler presents the service and surrender in the Christian Tradition as that of the “Handmaid of the Lord”, Mary. Dennis Hamm is reminded of the idols about which we can organize our life, making money, keeping health, seeking power and getting toys which are counter to the lead and direction to Israel in the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4) to focus on the One God with all our strength. Friar Jude sobers our speculation about our enslavement and the direction of our path by commenting on the fate of the slave found to be unfaithful when the Master returns. He restates the Gospel message that we who know better are held to a higher standard of faithfulness. A disturbing aspect of searching faithful and unfaithful slave references is to encounter the modern culture which sets expectations that faithfulness to a spouse or partner is depriving yourself of something you deserve. The spiritual eyes closed by the choice of sin by Adam, then and now, are opened by the choice of God, now.