The Church's liturgy challenges us to consider the Harvest of God - the in-gathering of gifts into the final Reign of God. In just a few weeks we will celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King. If we remember our early Church history we recall that many Christians in the first few centuries were tortured and died because they claimed allegiance to the Lord Emperor Jesus, and not Caesar. Even the litany of entrance into the liturgy that we have retained as an entrance rite began Kyrie - Lord, which until then had been the title of the Roman god Caesar. But who is this Kyrie that we assert is Mercy? What is the style of leadership of this Kyrie of Heaven and Earth?

Today's Gospel tells us that Jesus assured those closest to Him that they must be servants of all. A short passage from one of the Servant Songs of Isaiah, the first reading today, discloses the servant-leader as one who utterly knows and loves his followers. A servant leader does not sin, but she enters the consequences of sin and forgives and heals it. A servant leader does not "lord it over". A servant leader does not enrich or aggrandize himself or herself but is enriched only by God's mercy so that he or she can pour riches out on those served.

Every baptised Christian has been called to enter the servant leadership of Jesus. The servant leader knows that Truth - another name for God - can never be separated from Mercy.