What gets my attention in our 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’s Lord Action’s statement: Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” We see that all around us, in corporate power, in political power, in ecclesial power Everywhere we look in all walks of life, we find those who, Jesus said, “tie up heavy burdens hard and 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, doesn’t sell well in today’s culture. It tends to carry the stereotype of being weak, unassertive, lily-livered, in other words of being a wimp. Think about your image of a humble person. Is it an appealing picture that you can aspire to? If not, hear Gary Zukav, in his book The Seat of the Soul, p.225, as he talks about those humble folks around us:

“Humble spirits are free to love and 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 do 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.”

Those folks who live by the internal power of Love don’t sound like wimps by any stretch of the imagination.

External power? Internal power? What motivates us is the choice we make every day.

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