Let us turn once again to the Gospels, and look at ourselves in our model, in Jesus Christ.

James and John, through their mother, have asked Jesus for places at his right and at his left. The other disciples are angry with them. What is Our Lord's answer to all this? 'Whoever has a mind to be great among you, must be your servant; and whoever has a mind to be first among you, must be the slave of all; for the Son of Man has not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.'

On another occasion they were going to Capharnaum. Jesus may have been walking ahead of them as he did on other days. 'And there, when they were in the house, he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the way?" But they kept silence, for on the way they had' once more 'been disputing among themselves which of them was the greatest. Then he sat down, and called the twelve to him, and said, "If anyone has a mind to be the first, he must be the last of all, and the servant of all." And he took a little child, and set him in the midst of them; and taking him into his arms, he said to them, "Whoever welcomes such a child as this in my name, welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me, welcomes, not me, but him who sent me."'

Doesn't this way Jesus has of doing things move us to love him? He teaches them the doctrine and then, to enable them to understand it, he gives them a living example. He calls a little child, one of the children running around the house, and he lovingly embraces him. How eloquent Our Lord's silence is! With it he has already said everything. He loves those who become as little children. He then adds that the reward for this simplicity, for this humility of spirit, is the joy of being able to embrace him and his Father who is in heaven.