Service is class/generation blind

23rd June 2011   ·   1 Comment

By Fr. Jerome LeDoux
The Louisiana Weekly Contributing Columnist

“Yes, two distinct audiences,” ‘Unity Explosion’ coordinator Evelyn Wagner-Wright emailed me. “Older adults are at the table and witnessing. Young adults want to come to the table and be a witness (without experience); older adults are quietly or nonverbally saying, ‘There is not a space for you at the table and we will not show or tell you where the chairs are.’ Very simply put… This info came directly from the young adult team!”

The roots of this complaint are not exclusive to the church parish whence they came, but rather native to virtually every parish where there are young adults and older adults. It is the perennial struggle between youth and elders over knowledge, experience, wisdom, planning ability, imaginative strategies for activities, and independence.

“Who knows and works better?” is a wrestling match that should never end, for it will invariably achieve better results by benign competition. However, we can help the process along measurably by getting our heads and hearts together in religious dialogue.

Roderick Bell, other musicians and folks came to Madeline Johnson’s desk at the Galveston-Houston Diocesan Office of Radio and Television 22 years ago to talk about doing a local thing similar to the annual “Rejoice” gatherings for musicians in DC. Thus, quietly, “Unity Explosion” began with a founding mother, sisters and brothers. In that vein, Evelyn’s above-stated aim was to outline my charge for presenting a possible solution or two to the dilemma of young adults eager to serve in the churches, while older adults who have been serving for years refuse to let them share or take over.

Are the older adults so entrenched in their years of power and control that they are unwilling to release their hold on the controls? Or do the elders simply think that their juniors do not have the savvy and experience to do a good job? Or is it both reasons? Will our adults cede power only under the duress described by Frederick Douglass in 1849?

“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will. Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and this will continue till they have resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they suppress.”

While we don’t consider our older adults tyrants, we do have to ask whose example must they follow in exerting power and control in their activities as church members.

“Evangelization… Am I a witness?” is the theme of ‘Unity Explosion’ 2011. The only way to be a witness to the Good News is to spread it through genuine service as Jesus did in going about teaching, healing and meeting the needs of all those around him. By definition, service means subservience to another in doing what one is told to do.

Clearly, older adults cannot be a witness to the Good News if they are unwilling to serve as Jesus did, becoming subservient to everyone, including young adults. Right after their First Communion at the Last Supper, Jesus spells it out in Luke 22:25-26 when an argument broke out among his apostles about which of them was the greatest.

“The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them and those in authority over them are addressed as Benefactors; but among you it shall not be so. Rather, let the greatest among you be as the youngest, and the leader as the servant.”

How do we know for sure that the service that proves such a witness to the Good News is genuine? No service is genuine unless it is unselfish. The hallmark of un­selfishness is that something is done for someone else, and that means not for one’s own will and agenda but for the will and agenda of another without some sweetheart kickback for us.

Jesus attests to genuine service in Matthew 20:38, “The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

In Philippians 2:5-8, Jesus claims the status of a slave, “Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.”

Thus, Jesus became a slave to the slaves, so that he was lower than we, choosing not to rule us but to serve us. In all reality, Jesus took as his own the official title of the Pope, “Servant of the Servants of God.” That is the true meaning of Philippians 2:5-8.

Luke 22:42 also shows true service in the attitude of Jesus, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, not my will but yours be done.”

Nonetheless, wanting to serve always and never wanting to be served can be a failure as a servant. Quite often, the highest form of service we can provide is to allow or enable another or others to serve us. We must, therefore, beware of not wanting others to serve us. Thus, Jesus allowed a penitent woman to anoint him in public with precious oils.

John 12:7-9 recounts the reaction of Jesus to the objection of Judas Iscariot about the liter of costly perfumed oil, “Let her alone; she has kept this for the day of my burial. For the poor you have with you always, but me you do not have always.”

Even though it can be difficult for older adults to share their table in church with young adults and eventually abdicate to them their years-long service agenda, strategies and goals, it can become easy, even enjoyable, when done in imitation of Jesus the Servant.

The sole and constant attitude of a genuine servant must be, “How can I help you? How can I make you a better person? How can I contribute to your well-being? How can I enable you to be all you can be? How can I help you grow closer to God spiritually?”

Those questions must be asked by both the older and younger adults. Both generations must be aware that they have a strong, corresponding obligation to serve one another.

This article originally published in the June 20, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.