The Spiritual Significance of Serving Others

The Spiritual Significance of Serving Others 
By Susan Ciancio
Be of service. Those three short words have the potential to carry an enormous positive impact when acted upon with love. I have thought of those words for weeks, ever since I watched an episode of a TV show where the main character not only uttered those words but lived them proudly in his service to a grieving friend and her daughter. Be of service illustrates how God intends for us to live.
We in the pro-life field know this, as we serve others every day of our lives, and we perform these acts of love even when faced with adversity and despite the hate-filled actions of many around us. We live according to the truth that all people—from creation until death—are made in the image of likeness of God and have value. The hatred that has become so prevalent, which is actually the opposite of self-giving love, seems to have not only possessed but suffocated many in our country, so much so that deaths and murders are cheered and supported, threats to government officials are applauded, and all manner of threats to the sanctity of life are praised.
Service to others has become an antiquated notion for many, as service to the self has taken precedence.
But we cannot let these actions affect ours. Instead, we can seek the guidance of the holy men and women who helped build the Church, for when we look back at Church history, we see that it’s made up of people who gave their lives in service to others. Some literally gave their lives. Others devoted their lives to helping the poor, serving the sick, teaching children, protecting the vulnerable, or simply praying for the spread of Christ’s kingdom on earth. If we want to become more saintlike—and thus more Christlike—we too must grow in service to others.
In Matthew 20:28, Jesus explains that “the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” God became man to save us from our sins and to redeem the world. He became one of us, not so He could revel in our accolades but because He wants us to be with Him in heaven for eternity. He lived as a human being, died a painful death, and rose so that we could have eternal life.
And what does He ask in return? He asks for service.

When questioned by the Pharisees about the greatest commandment, Jesus responded, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
That love for our neighbors requires us to be of service, just as Jesus served us here on earth. As we read in John 13:12-14, “When [Jesus] had washed their feet [and] put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them, ‘Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet.’”
But Christ didn’t just wash the feet of His disciples. He fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, healed the sick, and carried the cross. Though all of His actions, He proved that everyone He encountered was valuable. Yes, He is God, but no one is too small or inconsequential to matter to Him.
So, how do we live according to Christ’s teachings and wash one another’s feet? We do this through works of mercy and love. We serve the people around us in everything we do—at home, in our friend group, at church, and even through our jobs. And we understand that, when we do this, we become more saintlike.
Author Joe Cady articulated this well when he wrote, “When we serve others, we become a living example of Christ’s love. Jesus said that people would know that we are Christians by our love, which means that service and active love for others is a form of evangelization.” This evangelization then helps draw others to our faith and to joy in Christ.
Throughout our days, we have numerous chances to evangelize by serving others. Within our families, we can cheerfully serve by performing acts of kindness without grumbling and without making the recipient feel guilty that we’re helping. At work, we can be present for others and talk with them, always making them feel welcome and valued. Those in service professions can make the choice to serve patients or clients with love rather than with detachment, listening to them, looking them in the eye, and truly making them feel valued. When we are out in our communities, we can affirm the mom with several children in tow, assist the elderly woman shopping alone, or buy a hot meal or a cold drink for the homeless man on the street. Every word of kindness to someone in need can make a difference. Every donation to a food bank, every volunteer hour at a nursing home, every phone call to an elderly relative or a lonely friend, and every affirmation of the beauty of the preborn makes Christ’s teachings come alive in the world around us.
When our goal is to serve others as Christ would, we will find that we are truly serving as His hands and feet here on earth.
St. Paul wrote to the Romans, “Do not be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good.” Through love and service, we combat the culture of hate that we so often see today. This is a culture seen at its extremes by Elie Wiesel, who as a young Jewish boy was sent to Auschwitz and then later Monowitz and Buchenwald. In 1986, in his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize, Wiesel spoke of the horrific crimes against him and emphasized the impact that even just one person can have:
One person of integrity can make a difference, a difference of life and death. As long as one dissident is in prison, our freedom will not be true. As long as one child is hungry, our lives will be filled with anguish and shame. What all these victims need above all is to know that they are not alone; that we are not forgetting them, that when their voices are stifled we shall lend them ours, that while their freedom depends on ours, the quality of our freedom depends on theirs.
Our charge is to be that person of integrity, to never allow hatred to swallow us or to guide our actions, and to keep our world from ever succumbing to such hatred. At the end of our lives, we will be held accountable for all that we do and all that we say—online and in person—so let us take to heart the charge to serve others. As St. Maximus the Confessor once said, “A man is blessed if he can love all men equally. Moreover, if he truly loves God, he must love his neighbor absolutely.”
Always striving for heaven, let us absolutely love others and show this love through our words and actions. And let us be of service to those around us so that through us they may know our Heavenly Father.