Mark 10:35-45 throws light for me on one of the Second Vatican Council's most important teachings. Jesus tries to teach the disciples that leadership among his followers is not to be like that of the rulers they know, lording it over their subjects and making their authority felt. He offers himself as the model of Christian leadership: not to be served but to serve.
The Council describes a servant church. Both laity and clergy make up the People of God, a communion of believers. The image is that of concentric circles with the Bishop of Rome in the center, encircled by the other bishops, and then the laity.
In Mark's Gospel the disciples don't get it and not many centuries later we see church leaders "lording it over" the laity and "making their authority felt." One speaker at the conference said that for about twenty years after the Council, Rome seemed to have got it. Since that time, however, he described an even greater centralizing of authority in the Roman Curia.
Jesus says, "It must not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant, whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all."
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