Matthew 23:1-12
Dear Friends, In my second or third year as a young priest, at the end of the Second Vatican Council, I began to tell people to drop the Father and just call me Tracy. Very shortly one of the wise leaders of the parish pulled me aside to tell me a simple truth: It was not about me!She said the community needs to respect and honor the role of the priest. It was very important to them. Therefore, I would be wise to stop the nonsense about, “Call me Tracy.”
All organizations need to use titles no matter how hierarchical or democratic. The question is, do these titles lend themselves to service of the grater good or the personal enhancement of the individual. This is the issue of today’s gospel.
While Jesus is addressing the faults of the Jewish leaders, He is even more forcefully speaking to the disciples about leadership in the Christian community. It must be service first and foremost. “The greatest among you must be a servant.” (Mt. 23:11)
That is easier said than done. There is a drive in the ordinary human experience that calls us to seek privilege, prestige and recognition. We are all inclined to be special. Every gathering of human beings has to deal with organization and leadership that lives with the tension between power and service. Obviously, in the faith community, this conflict plays itself out between the clergy and the laity and, even more so, in the role of the hierarchy in the Church. All of this festers in the curse of clericalism that plagues the Church.
Those who are the recipients of titles have the responsibility to go beyond the title. They need to offer the integrity of service free of privilege and prestige. This is first and foremost the task of the clergy. However, there is no group in the Church that is not challenged by this tension between power and service.
The Festival committee wants to passionately help the parish but it is very easy to lose track and reduce the whole effort to how much income the group makes on their project in comparison to other groups. The Liturgy Committee deals with the same tension. While all are there in the name of Jesus, it is not unheard of that some of the greatest conflicts in a parish take place in how to arrange the worship of the Lord! The ushers and the Eucharistic ministers also tend to raise the ego above the service sometimes. Actually, there is no parish group that is free of this insidious temptation. Likewise, the parish and the school share a ministry, but at times, it hard to find the spirit of the Gospel in these troubled relations. I always remember an old Baptist minister that told me as a young priest, “The devil comes into the church through the choir!” Over my many year as pastor, I have come to realize that the choir has no monopoly as the welcoming committee for the devil.
Jesus gave us a lesson about the Christian community in chapter eighteen of Matthew’s Gospel. Asked who is the greatest in the Kingdom of God, Jesus says we must become like little children. Then there is a series of teachings about the Christian community. Jesus lays out a clear plan for all, especially the leaders. Humility is the foundation. We must especially pay attention to the weaker members and the ones that stray away. All this is done in the context of a deep and loving forgiveness.
Today’s Gospel passage stresses Jesus’ appeal for personal integrity. We need to maintain the connection of our core gospel values and our actions. The clear implication about the scribes and Pharisees is the frightening challenge of the slippery slope of hypocrisy in public ministry. The words and the gestures were correct, however, the basic thrust of their action was about building up their prestige and privilege, their personal and economic gain. This cancer of hypocrisy is never far away in any public ministry in the Church. This why we all need deep personal prayer to set us free from this gross self-deception.
The public rubric and the public dress of church ministers readily lends itself as an obstacle to gospel simplicity. Too often, the role of clerics and ministers slides into one of pretentious do-gooders, or attention-grabbers where piety is worn as a costume. It is no easy task to be a humble servant in the midst of the pull to self-centered roles and rubrics in most church’s public ministry. It is obvious that we have work to do to realize Who is the only Teacher and the only Father. (Mt 23: 9) It is a long journey for all of us to realize “it is not about us”. Jesus tells us that that the real journey of the gospel is away from personal power and prestige and towards service: “The greatest among you must be your servant.” (Mt 23:11)
