What was the name of the waiter or waitress who served you the last time you ate in a restaurant? Do you find it hard to remember or do you give it no heed? In fact, most people never learn the names of those who serve them, whether at a restaurant, at the car dealership, at a grocery store, a bakery or a butcher’s. They are just there, people to serve and rarely to be noticed.

Strange as it seems, the ideal to which Jesus calls us, and which he exemplified in his own life is, “service.” He insists that if we really expect to count in the eyes of God, we must become people who serve (Mark 10 : 43). What’s more, he insists we don’t count the cost, and that we do whatever we do out of a sense of duty if we want to avoid the pitfall of egoism and pride (Luke 17 : 10).

Servers often work in great pain because they cannot afford to do otherwise although they are seldom noticed and rarely appreciated. Yet, without the servers and the dishwashers and the busboys and the cooks, the restaurant would be nothing. Those who serve are important people: “Anyone among you who aspires to greatness must serve the rest.”

We almost never think of the men and women who collect our garbage or take care of maintenance. We rarely notice the people who clean and change the beds in our hospitals or launder the sheets at the motels we use. It is hard for most of us to put a name on the policeman who directs traffic at the center of town or the clerk in the supermarket. We know the names of important people—athletes, movie stars, politicians, but the “little people” escape our notice.

Jesus points out that we have put the cart before the horse. It is the janitor who is just as favored as the CEO, the orderly as the doctor, the teacher as the principal, and the servant as the master. He turns everything upside down. True greatness, he says, is to be achieved by serving others.

“Name dropping” is an all-American sport. People like to tell others what important people said or did. They love to be able to say they read their books, visited their birthplace, slept in a bed they once used or, wonder of wonders, met them in the flesh. If we followed Jesus’ teaching we might start another kind of name-dropping, mentioning what the janitor said, or the nurse’s assistant, or the waitress.

How revolutionary is this teaching of Jesus about authority! Have you ever noticed how politicians love to drop the names of ordinary people, like Joe the plumber, when seeking re-election? They do this because they want to appeal to the ordinary person and show how alike they are. The truth is, they are alike. But they should acknowledge this all the time, by their actions, and not only when they are running for public office.

Abuses of authority by those who love to “lord it over” others was a real turn-off to Jesus (Mark 10 : 42). He cautions us to avoid that kind of abuse at all costs because the true meaning of authority is service. Jesus brings us back to this original understanding of the term.

Everybody has ample opportunities to serve others every day by the way they treat them in the course of their work. Never look down on anybody, but treat him or her with kindness. Kindness is service in thought, word and deed. It can be as simple as a smile, a pat on the back, an encouraging word, a helping hand, a grievance forgiven, a confidence shared. This kind of service to others can happen any way, at any place, and at any time.

Make a point then of reaching out to those around you with an act or acts of kindness. Do it at the earliest opportunity, and do it without an agenda or ulterior motive.

Do it because it is your duty.

—Fr. Hugh Duffy