We are hardwired for success. We are competing at the earliest moments of our lives. How early one speaks, takes the first step, sleeps through the night, then grows into vying for a seat in a prestigious pre-school, and it just goes on from there. It is easy to get an inflated sense of one’s self importance. Some of us are indispensable at work, or in some vocational or community service project with which we are involved. We begin to imagine – and then actually believe – that they couldn’t function without us.
We want to be the best – the best at everything we do. On one level it is a good thing, but it can turn sinister. Unchecked completion and unbridled competition can lead to many self-destructive behaviors.
Many of us are victims of this blind ambition. We see it played out within families, at school, on the athletic field, in the workplace, throughout the government, and now also in the Church. Compromising one’s values, sense of self or personal integrity in order to get ahead is disastrous and destructive. More importantly, as Jesus warns us, one gains nothing when the sacrifices we make come at the loss of eternal life.
It is also sadly true that often those who speak the truth are vilified for speaking the truth. The author of the Book of Wisdom – an Old Testament text written around 50BC – laments that same sentiment in the First Reading. The truth tellers are often beset with vitriol because they dare to tell the truth. Of course, in an age when everyone has access to a public forum, it can be hard to distinguish a truth teller from a disgruntled sycophant.
How do we manage to remain steady and faithful in the wake of such obvious sinful political and vainglorious behavior among even the highest members of the clergy? It is clear that we cannot allow the sins and failings of others to become a source of scandal to us, and yet scandalous it is. We can also not allow the sins and failings of others to justify or serve as an excuse for our own misdeeds. Sin often begets sin. This is unquestionably manifest in our current crisis. Remaining faithful can be more challenging for some, while others find it easier to respond positively in the wake of a challenge.
The warnings in all three Readings are dire and almost self-apparent. It is perhaps another sign of Divine justice and vindication not only that these readings occur now, but that the three Readings on this Sunday carry the same theme, which actually happens infrequently in the Mass.
The term “servant-leadership” is gaining some ground in Church circles, but also within some aspects of the broader culture. Certainly we see Jesus lay the groundwork for this as he says: “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.”
We have to be careful moving forward that the remedies set forth and those who design and implement whatever plans the Church develops to heal the wounds of sin and failure does not become a means by which others also become self-inflated. Whenever anyone puts himself or herself forward in the community to take on a ministerial role, regardless of what that role is, the potential for self-serving hubris is always present.
Let us then pray – pray for our Church and her hierarchical structure, for her naysayers, her reformers, and those who from the inside are presumptively self-righteous, that we might all learn the humility that comes, not from being first, but of being the least among us.
Father Garry Koch is pastor of St. Benedict Parish, Holmdel.