Human Expectations about Rank and Privilege Are Turned Upside Down by the Power and Authority of Love
A Reflection of the Readings for the 29th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year B
By Fr. Maximilian Buonocore, OSB
Readings:
Isaiah 53:10-11
Hebrews 4:14-16
Mark 10:35-45
James and John’s vying for greater status makes me think about a story that I heard. There were three high school classmates who always were vying to be better than each other, each aspiring to outperform the others. Many years after they graduated high school, the three classmates met in a class reunion. Each was anxious to prove that he had outdone the other in career aspirations. “I am a pastor,” said the first, “people call me ‘Monsignor.’” “Well,” bragged the second, “I am a bishop and people call me ‘Your Excellency.’” “Well,” said the third, “I have you both beat.” “Yeah? How?” asked the other two. “I’m an auditor for the IRS. When people open the door and see me, they say, ‘My God, it’s you again!”
I have another story. This one is true, or perhaps a legend. It took place more than 250 years ago. On one occasion during the American Revolutionary War, preparations were being made for an up-coming battle. A man dressed in civilian clothes passed by a corporal who was screaming orders at his men. Seeing that they were obviously exhausted from their labor, the man asked the corporal, “Why don’t you help them?” “Sir,” the corporal bristled as his anger rose, “I am a corporal!” With a quick apology, the stranger took off his coat, rolled up his sleeves and set to work with the soldiers. When the work was completed, he walked over to the corporal and said, “Mr. Corporal, Sir, whenever you need someone to help with a job, feel free to call on me, your commander-in-chief. I will be happy to be of service.” With that, George Washington put on his coat and left, to the corporal’s embarrassment, of course. Whether George Washington’s motivation was gospel-driven or not, Washington understood the principle that Jesus was conveying to his apostles in the Gospel passage (Mark 10:35-45), that those who aspire to greatness, or aspire to rank first among others, must serve the needs of all - they must be, as Jesus said, the slave of all. For Jesus, a person’s status is no longer to be measured by how many people are subject to that person, or how many people serve that person, but how many people to whom that person is subject through loving service. This principle does not accord with human reason. The corporal’s position seems more reasonable. Incidents like this one with Washington and his corporal stand out so much because they are uncommon. People resist it because of its apparent unreasonableness. That is why this principle has not found a universal foothold in society at large. I may insist that I am not seeking greatness and power over other people, but if I examine my motives deeply and honestly, I will often discover that I am actually seeking to be better than others or exercise power over others in much smaller matters, even in my ministry. That could happen with anyone, whether lay or religious: we may be using our reason to rationalize a grasp for power and control over others in our job and/or in our family.
Let me tell you a story that happened this week that got me reflecting on my own use of authority and power. One of the students I tutor sent an email to Dr. Fletcher, the music teacher and band director, to inform him that he would be late to band practice the next day after school because of tutoring. The email read: “Good evening Dr. Fletcher, I just wanted to let you know that I have torturing tomorrow after school.” Dr. Fletcher shared that with other members of the faculty and staff - blocking out, of course, the name of the student). When I viewed it, I wondered, “is that just a misspelling? Maybe he meant it figuratively as a way of expressing how onerous is the task of addressing skills deficiencies? Or perhaps, God forbid, he meant it literally?” One of the faculty members who read it asked me, “What is it that you do after school when you are tutoring?” “Well,” I responded, “I do whatever it takes to get them to learn.” It has made me reflect in recent days on how I personally exercise power over others, in particular, my students. It is important to act with authority; the students need that. However, I have to ask myself if I am guilty of exercising authority for the sake of exercising authority, or for ensuring that I am successful. In that case, I am really meeting the needs of the students, or am I meeting my own disordered desires. I have to be careful that I am not putting my aspiration to be successful with the student - to be successful in developing his learning skills - ahead of that student’s need to grow in self-confidence and self-esteem. I may even use the power of reason to rationalize that I am helping the student even when I am actually harming him by neglecting to nurture his self-esteem. Reason is good and necessary for life in this world. It is a gift from God to be used for living well and continually improving society. But I must always be aware that reason can turn into rationalization by which I can convince myself that what I am doing is good for others, even when my deeper motivation is self-interest, and doing it may not necessarily be in the best interest of others.
James and John, the sons of Zebedee, had a strong desire for success and had lofty aspirations. But those desires and aspirations, to the extent that they were influenced by self-interest, were disorder desires and aspirations, even if they seemed very reasonable. On the contrary, properly ordered desires and aspirations flow from self-sacrificial love, even if they can, to many, seem very unreasonable. That is the lesson that Jesus was teaching his disciples, and is teaching us.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus turns human expectations about rank and privilege, about ambitions and authority, upside down, even to the point that it sounds unreasonable. What Jesus is making very clear to us today is that God is not reasonable. God does not act from reason. Human beings, who can only understand and make decisions by the use of successional, sequential, and analytical thinking, make use of the power of reason that they have been endowed with. But God does not think and make decisions by the use of reason. God’s thought and his being are one, and the nature of his being is love. So, when it appears to us that God is being unreasonable, it is because he, in fact, does not use reason as we do. His thought completely transcends what human reason can attain. Jesus comes into this world to radically change the way that we think about God. He turns things on their head. He regularly makes declarations that are totally unreasonable. For example, after giving the same wages to those who worked only one hour as he did to those who worked 12 hours, he said to those who protested (Matthew 20:15-16), “. . .are you envious because I am generous? So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” That is totally unreasonable. It is not fair. Reason tells us that God must be fair. So it is reasonable to expect God to be fair. Well, not according to Jesus. According to Jesus, God is not fair, God is merciful. Fairness is a way of judging actions according to reason. But God judges - God views things - from the perspective of his transcendent being, which is love. And Jesus challenges us also to attempt to go beyond what is reasonable to that which transcends reason so that we can gain a better sense of how God thinks and acts, and ourselves act Godly - that is, lovingly.
In summary, Jesus wants his followers to see that the highest authority by which one can act and influence other people is the authority of love. Love flows from self-sacrifice rather than self-interest, and Jesus wants his followers to imitate him in that kind of exercise of authority. In the Gospel passage from Luke (22:25-27), he says to his disciples, “. . .‘The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you; rather the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.” Thus, Jesus counters the human expectation for a messiah that exercises great power and authority in the world to overthrow the existing political order, to reveal that the real messiah is a suffering servant. That is most unreasonable. But the power and authority of God transcends what is reasonable: that is, the power and authority of love.
The exercise of the authority of love is self-transcending. It is self-transcending because it is God himself activating his image and likeness in me with his Holy Spirit living and acting in and through me. If it is merely I who am being merciful, then I have not transcended my self. I may be doing what is reasonable for me to do in aspiring to be good, but it is unlikely that I am authentically exercising the authority of love. But if God is being merciful through me, as is the case when I show mercy toward others that is beyond my own power to love, such as in the case of loving my enemies, it is then that I am transcending my self and am manifesting a love-response that is a perfect activation of God’s image and likeness in me in its fullness. It is then that I am being perfect as my heavenly Father is perfect. It is then that I am drinking of the cup that Jesus drank, and being baptized with the baptism with which Jesus was baptized. In fact, it is then then that, through me, Jesus continues to drink of that cup of redemptive mercy, and it is then that, through me, Jesus continues to be baptized with the baptism of self-sacrificing love. It is then that Jesus is exercising the power and authority of love in and through me. Amen.
All for Jesus,
Fr. Max
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