Word to the Wise
Thursday, February 24, 2011 - Thursday in the 7th Week in Ordinary Time
[Sir 5:1-8 and Mark 9:41-50]Rely not on your wealth; say not: "I have the power." Rely not on your strength in following the desires of your heart. Say not: "Who can prevail against me?" or, "Who will subdue me for my deeds?" for God will surely exact the punishment......
Power does strange things to people. The ancient wisdom contained in Sirach should alert us to this, but I fear it does not. As with anything that can be used for good or for bad, the human who is given "power" can choose to use it for either good or bad. Adam and Eve discovered that they had been given the "power" to choose, and they fell into the temptation to use that "power" to try and become more "powerful." Another way of describing it is to speak of "feelings of omnipotence!" Sirach warns us that we are headed for trouble when we believe that we can do anything we want because we happen to have the "power" to do it.
It can be a useful exercise to ask oneself about power in one's life. Children discover it fairly early - ask any two-year old who has learned how to manipulate a parent! One way is to ask about the ways in which we feel "powerful" or "powerless!" Under what circumstances do these feelings occur? Some pastors use keys as a way to feel powerful! Jesus' image of giving Peter the "keys to the kingdom of heaven" is an example that I think some church authorities lay claim to in a kind of "trickle down" fashion. When I taught medical bioethics on the college level a few years ago, I noticed the change in students' behavior toward me as a professor with the "power" to give grades as compared with my relationship to them on a pastoral level as a chaplain! Individuals elected to public office or newly graduated medical doctors can experience the strange "rush" of power that is accorded to them.
Sirach warns us about thinking that power is a possession that makes us independent of God and unaccountable to anyone. It is a warning that can mean the difference between life and death. AMEN
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