The Empires of Power and Service

In texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary Sirach and Jesus tell us about the nature of God. Sirach seeks new signs and wonders as evidence that God of Israel is God of the universe and is the protector and builder of Israel. The kingdom which Jesus describes to His disciples is not one that they expect. The usual assertion of power and authority over subjects will be replaced by service . Susan Tinley comments on the patience and forgiveness with which Jesus treats the Apostles who seek to have places of power in the regime Jesus will establish in Jerusalem. As we walked yesterday from the San Giovanni area of Rome to the Colloseum and the Roman Forum and on to Venezia and the Fountain of Trevia, the contrast and similarity between the structures of the Roman Empire meant to be that god like power over the people and the Churches of Rome which are islands of rest and patient presentation of a timeless truth was physically evident. We had a personal tour of the Church of the Apostles where the curia of the Fransciscans presents the history of seven centuries of the service which Jesus presnts for us in the Gospel from Mark. This history, like our personal stories, is not without times of decisions, like that of James and John to seek great glory in the manner of the princes of the earth yet when we literally descend beneath the surface of these Churches we need to see the centrality of these places for faith building in the architecture and art to draw people toward visions of lives lived in the service of the Gospel.