If I were to ask you, and I am about to, who has heard of Saint Damien of Molokai? Who has heard of Saint Damien? Raise your hands, please. Damien of Molokai. Okay. Some of you know the great missionary saint of the Hawaiian Islands, who ministered to the lepers, at the lepers and lepers are those members of the community who have Hansen’s disease.

And now, because of antibiotics, Hansen’s disease has all but disappeared. Now, if I say who has heard of Barbara Cope? Anybody heard of Barbara Cope? Okay. How about if I say Saint Marianne of Molokai? Anybody here to Saint Marianne? Because some of us know who Saint Damien is. Does that take away from Saint Marianne Cope, who ministered with, Saint Damien of Molokai?

Who is more successful? The saint that we know about or the saint who might be a little bit more anonymous, who’s more successful? Well, in fact, Marianne Cope. Saint Marianne is an extraordinary figure. She is a 20th century saint born in upstate New York. She was after she came back from the Hawaiian Islands. The foundries of the New York Catholic hospital system in the 19 late 1920s and 30s, when she was on Molokai, she was given the title of Mother of the Hawaiian Islands by the Hawaiian government.

And on October 22nd, she and six other sisters took charge of the leprosy on Honolulu, the receiving station, and opened a school for girls. She was awarded the Royal Order of Kapiolani, the highest award given by the Hawaiian government. Mother Mary Ann died in 1918. Excuse me. I made a mistake when I said that. She founded the New York hospital system that was firmly established by 1935.

She founded it at the beginning of the century after she came back from Hawaii. It is amazing that. Don’t we all want to get the A in school? Which one of our young disciples wants to have all A’s this year? Yeah. Good luck with that. Do it because you can. But is that mom and dad success? Do we want our children to be known for their A’s or for their kindness, their goodness, their generosity, their willingness to serve?

What would you rather have? A child who is really smart, or a child who is incredibly Christlike? Isn’t that real success? Now, it would be a little bit. I’m going to use an Italian word you may not know for Jay-Z of us to say we don’t want our children to be great students, but it isn’t to say we don’t want them to be humble.

We want them to be able to live as Christ lived with enthusiasm. We all want that for our children. If we didn’t, we’d be a little naive. Why would we be here? We’re here because we want them to have a real, authentic encounter with Christ. That’s the job well done. And once or twice in a lifetime, people like Saint Damien and Saint Marianne come into our lives to explain.

To explain to us the meaning of the gospel, to remind us that what it means to be successful may not be how the world defined it. Truly and it extraordinary woman, Saint Marianne, relatively unknown to every one of us here except for me, because I did the homily. But anyway. Okay, you were supposed to laugh at that. But we’ll move on.

What it comes down to is the discussion that the disciples had in today’s gospel. They were ambitious, but not ambitious for the higher gift of wisdom. We heard about our second reading. Now, it’s not wrong to want to be successful. It’s a very good thing. And it’s even better to want to be a successful disciple and act like one who would want to be the best apostle.

Who wouldn’t want to be the best follower of Jesus in all of Galilee? I mean, after all, who wants to be the worst disciple but Jesus and telling us of the virtue of the kingdom of God does what brings a little child into the midst of the apostles and says, this is success. To be first in the kingdom of God is something we worked for.

But we have to understand to be first. We have to get back to the back of the line. We have to be like a little child. Isn’t it a bit ironic that the last teaching gives along the way? That day is the second prediction of his passion. Jesus is talking to us about his crucifixion, which would be in his time, not a measure of success.

Nobody wants to be successful. Dying on the cross. Rather, for us, it is the honor and glory of the cross that truly mates Jesus. Us success and robes him in the honor of glory as the Son of God. Jesus gets their attention, doesn’t he? He predicts his own death and then says, be like a little child. It literally turns the apostles world upside down because the value of this child is not on success, but is because of the value of being a child of God.

For heaven’s sake. You know, we place a lot of importance on being successful in this world. Do we place the same emphasis on being successful in the world to come? Now that’s the ambition worthy of a disciple. The letter of Saint James says that wisdom from above shows itself as pure as coming among us, with those who have pure motives today.

What are our motives for being here this morning? Are they to have an encounter with Christ? Are they to receive the Eucharist? Are they to strive for the higher gifts of love, fellowship, and hope in proclamation of God’s kingdom? This morning is our wisdom. Choosing to follow Christ when we choose to do something that isn’t exactly following Christ.

Have we misunderstood today’s readings? We can discover something very important about ourselves this morning, and that is what is the experience of Jesus in my heart. So think of Saint Damien of Molokai, the leper priest. Think of Saint Mary and Cup Minister with Saint Damien to the lepers, the mother of the Hawaiian Islands. Let us consider why they are so successful.

Because they had the ambition of a child for the higher things. Today, as we go to the Eucharist, let us pray to imitate Damien and Marianne so that we might proclaim Christ Jesus, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.