It’s amazing to think that the disciples were arguing about which of them was the greatest just after Jesus had told them—for the second time—of his Passion to come. The very thing Christ was talking about, the way of lowliness and submission, was the exact opposite of their game of spiritual one-upmanship.

There are no good sins to commit. But pride is an especially bad one. One of the deadly ones, it’s often equated with the Original Sin that prompted Adam and Eve to turn from God and toward their own agenda.

He sat down and summoned the Twelve. “So you want first place? Then take the last place. Be the servant of all.”

The famous slogan “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing” is often associated with Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi. Near the end of his life, the coach said, “I wished I’d never said the thing. . . . I meant the effort. I meant having a goal. I sure didn’t mean for people to crush human values and morality.”

In a spirit of repentance for our sins, we place ourselves in the hands of our merciful God.

For if the just one be the son of God, God will defend him and deliver him from the hand of his foes. The passage from the Book of Isaiah may sound like a foreshadowing of Jesus in “the hand of his foes,” but the readings this week are not so much about predictions—even though Christ makes one himself in the gospel.

There is no higher religion than human service. To work for the common good is the greatest creed. –Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)