What gets my attention in the gospel lesson is the contrast between power and humility. Status, prestige, authority, and power are just as much idols today as they were for the “scribes and Pharisees.” It has ever been so. We’re quite familiar with the truth of the 19th century Lord Acton’s statement, “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” We see that all around us, in ecclesial power, in political power, in corporate power. Everywhere we look, we find those who, as Jesus said, “tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them.” In contrast, Jesus commends the virtue of humility as our model of Christ-like living. Humility, however, does not sell well in today’s culture. We don’t want to be dismissed as weak, unassertive, as wimps.

As I was considering what to include in this meditation, a friend that I hadn’t heard from in a long time, called. It was good to hear from her, and it was abundantly clear that, since we had last conversed, a transformation had occurred in her life—she has been graced with humility. In light of my thoughts about this gospel, her testimony got my attention! At the same time, I was reading The Seat of the Soul by Gary Zukav and came across a paragraph on p.225 describing those who have humility! What are the odds of that? The synchronicity of those connections is too much to ignore so I quote: “Humble spirits are free to love and to be who they are. They have no artificial standards to live up to. They are not drawn to symbols of external power. They do not compete for external power. This does not mean that they do not take pride in what they can do well, or that they don not focus their efforts to produce the best they can, or are not spurred onward by their fellow humans when that is appropriate to the situation.” In other words, humble folks are not wimps!

External power, internal power, what motivates us is a choice we make every day.