As Christians, we are ‘Called to Serve’

One day this past January, I was leafing through the mail when I came across an official correspondence from the U.S. District Court.

Before I could even see to whom it was addressed, my mind raced: please don’t let it be me, please don’t let it be me. Take my wife, take my kids, but please – not me!

Looking back down, I confirmed what I had feared. It was indeed for me. Jury duty.

And not just any jury duty, U.S. District Court jury duty – a two-week commitment!

Immediately I began conjuring up possible ways I could get out of it. According to a study, while more than 87% of summoned individuals respond to their summons, courts and surveys indicate that there is a growing trend of people attempting to get out of the duty through excuses, inaction, or, in some cases, even deception.

Another study showed that 24% of Americans would try to get excused from jury duty if summoned, and approximately 10% of Americans admitted to having lied to get out of jury duty, with 31% of those who lied stating they have actually fabricated a personal bias in order to be dismissed from jury duty.

About a month or so later, I found myself sitting in a large room in Camden with about 100 other grumbling people, most staring down at their cell phones, a few reading books, and the rest of us a captive audience of HGTV with most commercials ending with the phrase, “ask your doctor.”

Then an introduction to jury duty video started to play on a large screen, flashing the title: “Called to Serve.”

I completely lost interest in the video as I kept thinking of that title: “Called to Serve.” Aren’t all of us Christians, as disciples of Christ, called to serve? Why, then, was my first thought of jury duty on how I could get out of it? Were there other calls to service that I have tried to avoid? Wasn’t I, as a deacon, called to serve? And here I was, grumbling about serving.

As deacons, we are called to serve. Through the Sacrament of Holy Orders, the deacon is configured to Christ the Servant. It is Christ the Servant who acts through the ministry of the deacon.

However, while deacons are sacramental signs of Christ the Servant, as Catholics, we are called to serve others based on our baptismal calling.

In Saint John’s Gospel, Jesus says, “…I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.”

As Christians, we believe that in heaven, where Christ is, we also may be; however, as servants of Christ, as disciples of Christ, here and now, we need to make sure that wherever WE are Christ also may be. And it’s not just about making more space in our lives for Christ in what we do, but in who we are.

Jesus tells his disciples, “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do.”

The work Jesus is calling us to do is to serve. And that service isn’t just something extra we do for someone. It’s not just about charity work or giving of ourselves from time to time. Serving Christ isn’t just what we do, serving Christ is who we are, reflecting Christ in our very identity. Our actions flow from who we are as Jesus’ disciples.

Pope Saint John Paul II said, “Being precedes doing.” In other words, our identity in Christ comes first. Our “being” in Christ comes before our “doing” for Him.

Our Catholic life is not just an imitation of Christ, but a participation in Jesus’ very life. And this identity is deepened and strengthened through participation in the Holy Mass and the Eucharist, where we are conformed more fully to Christ and then sent to reflect Him in the world.

Everything we do, we do as a disciple of Christ. Imagine looking at all of our activities through a Catholic lens, whether we are sitting a meeting that could have been handled by an email, dealing with a disgruntled customer, standing in a slow check-out line at ShopRite, or sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic on 42, 676, and 295, every situation we find ourselves in, we need to respond as a disciple of Christ – that is the work Jesus calls us to do.

Even serving jury duty. We Christians serve not out of obligation, moral or legal, but out of communion with our brothers and sisters in Christ – the Mystical Body of Christ – out of cooperation with God, allowing Christ to be reflected and revealed through our thoughts, our words, our actions and our love, not because of what we do, but because of who we are.

Deacon Dean Johnson serves at Church of the Holy Family, Sewell.