The Stewardship of Clear Vision
by Fr. David M. Knight

Sunday, October 20, 2024
Twenty-Ninth Week of the Year
(Lectionary 146)
Is 53:10-11/Heb 4:14-16/Mk 10:35-45 or 10:42-45
Inventory
How do you feel about the Church’s struggle against evil in the world? Who is leading the Church in this struggle? Where do you fit into the picture?
Our Lives Will Bear Fruit
The Responsorial tells us the key to Isaiah 53: 10-11 is trust: “Lord, let your mercy be on us as we place all our trust in you.” Isaiah’s message is that we need to recognize the apparent defeat of the Messiah as being in fact God’s way of assuring that “the will of the Lord shall be accomplished.” If we “give our lives as an offering” to counteract sin in the world, we shall see, not a “long life for our descendants,” but the lasting—in fact, the eternal—fruitfulness of our labors for God. Jesus has chosen us to “go and bear fruit, fruit that will last.” He says to us what the angel said to Mary, “Blessed is the fruit,” not “of your womb,” but of your life. (See John 15:16; Luke 1:42.)
“Higher” Should Be Lower
It’s great to work with a winner. But in Mark 10: 35-45 Jesus warns those who recognize him as a winner that working with him might not be what they expect. James and John asked Jesus to give them top positions in the government they thought he was going to establish. He told them they didn’t know what they were asking, and added “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink…?”
Like a couple of fools, without knowing what that “cup” was, they answered, “We can.” Jesus then said the favor they had requested “is not mine to grant.” But he promised them something greater: the grace of martyrdom: “The cup that I drink you will drink.” Later on he promised they would have positions greater than they dreamed of: “You… will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Matthew 19:28.)
Jesus then made the radical rule that in the Church function should be divorced from prestige. Those with greater authority should not be treated with greater respect or have any more prestige than anyone else:
You know that among the Gentiles... their rulers lord it over them…. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and… slave of all.
If this Gospel were followed today, it would contribute enormously to the reform of the hierarchy and the renewal of the clergy. Lay leaders, as “stewards of the kingship of Christ,” should work for this, even if it appears impossible.
Unfortunately, for centuries the clergy reigned in their parishes as quasi-absolute monarchs. And the bishops, though less so since Vatican II, still dress on formal occasions like the European nobles they once were. Some people still address the hierarchy by pretentious, and to American ears ludicrous, titles: “Monsignor... Your Excellency... Eminence... Holiness,” as if ordination to an office made a man automatically more virtuous.
Lord Acton, a devout Catholic and friend of Blessed John Henry Newman, wrote to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887: “There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.” The more power the office gives, the less we should presume the holder is holy. If there is any presumption, it is the other way, against the holders of power, increasing as the power increases.... All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
The truth is, although most Catholics are unaware of it, there is nothing sacramental or sacred attached to the positions of “monsignor” and “cardinal.” These are political, not religious titles: for monsignors purely honorary, for cardinals simply administrative assignments.
Why make an issue of these external things? Titles and costumes are trivial.
We need to make an issue of these external things because the “trivial things” of daily life produce the mindset we work out of. And this one is harmful—most of all to the clergy and hierarchy, as power and prestige always are—but also to the laity, who see themselves as inferiors and consequently fail to admonish and advise the clergy in “collaborative ministry” as fellow stewards equally entrusted with the establishment of God’s reign.
Hebrews 4: 14-16 tells us to “confidently approach the throne of grace… to find help in time of need.” This is such a time. So, let us confidently approach God in prayer and as faithful stewards of the kingship of Christ, work for change. “Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place all our trust in you.”
Insight: Do I have hope that my efforts can help reform the Church and the world?
Initiative: Ask someone with the title “monsignor” if he prefers to be called by his political or his sacramental title.
Reflections brought to you by the Immersed in Christ Ministry

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