Service
Service
The word delivered by His Holiness the Pope in the meeting of the servants and female servants of Zagazig
Service is not merely teaching or instruction. It is not merely information, otherwise it would be an intellectual work. Rather, it is love that fills the heart of the servant toward the Kingdom of God and toward all people…
And out of the abundance of his love, he desires that all people be saved and walk in the path of the Kingdom. Service, then, is an expression of the love that exists in the heart. It is the longing of the servant that every person be guided to God…
Service is a spiritual experience that is transmitted from one person to another. It is the state of a person who has been filled, and from his fullness he overflows to others.
And he cannot overflow except the one who has been filled…
The servant is a person who has tasted the sweetness of the Lord in his life. And from the beauty of this experience, he calls people saying: “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”
Service is partnership with the Holy Spirit in building the Kingdom…
The Holy Spirit works in people for their salvation, and for this reason we work with the Spirit. Just as the Apostle Paul said about himself and Silas: “We are God’s fellow workers,” we share with Him in the work, or become the instrument of God by which He works…
Service is a spiritual duty upon every person…
Every person who loves God and loves people must serve. He cannot see people perishing before him while he remains silent… When the Samaritan woman knew Christ, she preached Him… She did not merely change from a sinner to a repentant one, but also to a servant. She went immediately, preaching to the people saying: “Come, see a Man who told me all that I ever did”…
Every person must serve, even though service varies according to gifts:
One serves by teaching, another serves the poor, and a third serves by good example. If you fall short in service, you should confess this before the priest father, for your shortcoming in service indicates that your love is not complete toward people, toward the Kingdom, toward God and His children…
Service is holy zeal that possesses the heart…
As David said: “Zeal for Your house has eaten me up.” As the Apostle Paul said: “Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.”
Service is not only the work of humans, but also the work of angels:
For the Apostle said about the angels: “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?” (Heb 1:14). Therefore the Scripture calls them servants: “Who makes His angels spirits, His ministers a flame of fire.”
He who serves offers a part of the great debt that is upon him.
He is indebted to the Church that taught him, refined him, guided him to the way of God, gave him the spirit of service, and filled him with the love by which he serves.
The servant is not an official employee in the Church, but rather a heart inflamed with the love of God and people. He is not governed by formalities, but by his conscience.
The loving servant is a kind of powerful magnet; everyone who enters his field is attracted to him. And his children respond to him with love for love…
Alongside love and zeal, the true servant is distinguished by sincerity and faithfulness. This faithful servant is precise in everything: faithful in preparing lessons, in explaining them to the children, and in visiting them. Faithful in his love for them, he grows in love and in work, and his service grows in number and in quality.
The servant who grows in his service often reaches growth that leads to consecration.
He does not wish to consider service as an additional work in his life to which he gives his spare time. Rather, service in his life is the foundation, and he considers his other works as secondary matters alongside service.
The servant who loves service considers service as one of the spiritual means, just like prayer, fasting, meditation, and reading.
He sees that service develops him in the love of God, not only the lives of his children. And he sees that in service he receives more than he gives.
Therefore, he cannot at all dispense with service in his life. And he thanks God who made him worthy to serve. In service he benefits from his lessons, perhaps more than his students benefit. And he feels that the lesson he delivers is for himself before it is for his students. He teaches them and learns with them.
The faithful servant cares for the one soul, just as his Master cared…
Just as the Lord cared for one soul that He found lost among a flock of a hundred, so he cares for individual work. He does not let the individual be lost in the crowd. He gives special attention to each child, as if he had come specifically for him, knowing that he will give an account for every soul among his children.
To know the seriousness of service, know that the servant among you may be the only source of religion during this period of his children’s lives…
They may not find in the home, or in the school, or in society another source that nourishes them spiritually. If they do not find this spiritual nourishment in the Church through the hands of the servant, their lives may be lost because of the servant’s negligence.
The true servant sets before him this verse as a motto in his service:
“For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth” (John 17:19).
This is because the holiness of the servant has its deep effect on the life of his disciple. The disciple takes from your life more than he takes from your sermons.
The true servant is a means of illustration for every virtue he teaches to the children.
He is a practical model of virtues and of the Christian life in general. Even if he does not speak, he is able to teach in his silence.
The true servant is a teacher, a father, a guide, a friend, and a lover…
He is everything from the human side to his disciples. He is the wide heart to which his disciple resorts and in which he hides. His disciples are a second family to him, perhaps closer to him than his family according to the flesh…
The spiritual servant goes about doing good, just as his Master did…
The spiritual servant grows continually. And his disciples—no matter how much they grow—feel that they take something new from him, and that he is still their example…
He does not leave the life of discipleship. Rather, he continually reads and learns, preserves his spiritual childhood, and refuses to wean himself from the breast of teaching.
He is like evergreen trees that never wither…
Greenery continually runs in his veins. Therefore he is always blossoming and fruitful, always alive, always fresh.
The spiritual servant is an intermediary between God and people.
He does not give from himself, but what he takes from the Spirit, that he gives to his children. He is always kneeling, asking the Lord for their nourishment day by day…
He always says to the Lord: I do not want to give them from my humanity or from my ignorance. Rather, the words that You place in my mouth are what I say to them…
He is a sensitive ear to the mouth of God.
He discerns the voice of God and declares His will to the people.
Therefore, his service is connected with prayer, because it is not a human work.
Service is not reliance on a human arm, but an expression of the work of the Spirit in the servants. Therefore how beautiful is the saying of Scripture: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev 2).
The disciple goes to the Church in order to hear “what the Spirit says to the churches”… Woe to him who goes merely to hear a human being…
What he hears from the teacher is what the Spirit says through the mouth of this teacher. Therefore, the spiritual servant prays in order to receive the lesson from the Spirit, and prays that the Spirit may give the children understanding, acceptance of the lesson, and the ability to apply it. For lessons are not theories, but a practical life, as the Lord says:
“The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.”
Have you received this Spirit, so that your words may be spiritual, giving life to those who hear them?
An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – in El-Keraza Magazine – Seventh Year (Issue Four) 23-1-1976
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