Word to the Wise
Wednesday, May 26, 2021 - Wednesday in the 8th Week in Ordinary Time
[Sir 36:1, 4-5a, 10-17 and Mark 10:32-45,]"You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall 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 salve of all. For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." [Mark]
MAY 26 ST. PHILIP NERI, C.O.
I have often quoted the famous statement of Lord Acton: "Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." We don't have to look beyond our own shores to find an abundance of evidence to support Lord Acton's words, but we can be confident that it is a universal problem. It was a problem for the very men Jesus chose as his closest collaborators. James and John, in today's gospel scripture, try to lobby Jesus for places of honor (power) in Jesus' proposed "kingdom." The models around them would have shown that those who sit to the right and left of a ruler are powerful people. That imagery shows up elsewhere in scripture when Jesus is spoken of as sitting at the right hand of God! [e.g. Hebrews 10:12; 12:2]. However, Jesus spoke to the corruption of power long before Lord Acton did. (By the way, Lord Acton was writing about Pope Pius IX.)
I can only sigh when I read this particular story in the gospel. I belong to a remarkably "democratic" religious order. Most important decisions are made by the community meeting in "chapter." Nevertheless, a brother is elected to serve as the "prior" or "local superior" in all Dominican houses. Regional "chapters" elect regional superiors, called Provincials. International chapters elect our top leader, the Master of the Order. Each of these individuals is granted considerable power by canon law and by the Constitutions of the Order of Friars Preachers (Dominicans). I am now in that position for the fifth time in my Dominican life (four local and one regional). I could tell James and John, "Forget it, guys. unless you want, as Jesus says, "to be the slave of all." Ask any parent of a two year old who is master and who is slave!!!
It is easy to look at the political or civic arena for examples of power and its abuses or accomplishments. But it might be helpful, in prayer, to consider who the "powerful" people are in our lives. They might not be the ones who "can tell us what we have to do." They may not be "sitting at the right hand or the left, etc." We might even ask how much power we allow God to have! A handy way is to look at the preposition that follows" power WITH? Power FOR? Power OVER? Which one appeals the most? AMEN