Deacon Greg 9-19-21
There’s a little secret I want to share with you, and I am only speaking for myself. When I prepare a Homily I usually begin a process that starts on Monday or Tuesday. I read the readings, I pray for some inspiration, I read the readings a few more times, and I pray a little more. Every now and then, I’ll also check on one of my favorite websites out there for reflections on the Sunday Readings. It’s called the Sunday Website at St. Louis University. This allows me a chance to focus and truly reflect on the readings. This week I came across a reflection called “The Power of Powerlessness” by Fr. Ron Rolheiser. He’s a priest serving with the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. He’s an author, speaker and is recently retired from his role as President of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas, and is currently serving on the faculty there. His reflection hit the mark for me… So much so that I’d like to share a part of it with you now, as I think it focuses on a key challenge that today’s readings proclaim.
Fr. Ron offers this… There are different kinds of power in our world. We see military power, muscle power, political power, charismatic power, psychological power and of course moral power. These of course exhibit themselves through various types of authority, as some seek to force us into accepting certain demands, while others can gently persuade us towards acceptance.
Imagine four persons in a room: The first is a powerful dictator who rules a country. His word commands armies and his shifting moods intimidate subordinates. He wields a brutal power. Next to him sits a gifted athlete who is at the peak of his physical prime, a man whose quickness and strength have few equals. His skills are a graceful power for which he is much admired and envied.
The third person is a rock star whose music and charisma can electrify an audience and fill a room with a soulful energy. We see her face is on billboards and she is what you call a household name. Finally, we have too in the room a newborn, a baby, lying in its crib, seemingly without any power or strength whatsoever, unable to even ask for what it needs. Which of these is ultimately the most powerful?
Ironically, it’s the baby who ultimately wields the greatest power. The dictator could kill it, the athlete could easily outperform it in a race, and the rock star could seemingly out-glow it with sheer dynamism, but the baby has a different kind of power. It can touch hearts in a way that a dictator, an athlete, or a rock star cannot. Its innocent, wordless presence, without physical strength, can transform a room and a heart in a way that guns, muscle, and charisma cannot. We watch our language and actions around a baby, less so around athletes and rock stars. The powerlessness of a baby touches us at a deeper moral place.
And this is the way we find and experience God's power here on earth, sometimes to our great frustration. And this is the way that Jesus was deemed powerful during his lifetime. The entire Gospel make this clear, from beginning to end. Jesus was born as a baby, powerless, and he died hanging helplessly on a cross with bystanders mocking his powerlessness. Yet both his birth and his death manifest the kind of power upon which we can ultimately build our lives.
This reflection helped me see something else… I see today’s readings offering a choice and a challenge in Childish Behavior vs. Child-Like Behavior. The First Reading from Wisdom shows a very “childish” people who are obviously threatened by the possibility that God might be in their midst. “Let us see whether his words be true; let us find out what will happen to him… Let us condemn him to a shameful death; for according to his own words, God will take care of him.” Can you hear the snide and childish tone? Who are my elementary and middle school students here? It’s the tone of a BULLY isn’t it? We know that bullying at any age is wrong, and that’s what St. James tells us today: “Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice.” But he then compares to something better, saying that “the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity.”
Jesus’ invitation has always revolved around calling on us to become more “Child-Like” in our level of trust and humility. In fact, it would seem that it is this quality that reduces the powerful to nothing, for as we heard Fr. Ron’s reflection state earlier, a “child-like” infant quality moves others to care for the “child” more than themselves. Maybe this is a good explanation of why Jesus told The Twelve (and us) that “if anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” When opportunities to serve come upon us, it’s like Christ is taking that child, placing it in OUR midst, and putting his arms around it, saying, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.”
Maybe it comes down to this… Don’t be like the people in the First Reading, trying to wield power, talent, and charisma to control the moment for themselves to test out and prove that their way is best. Rather, take the challenge of our Lord, and serve “the child” among us, living with, as St. James put it, “the wisdom from above that is “peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits.”
The gentle power of our our Lord lying in a manger, or quietly reaching into the hearts of the needy, or struggling to carry his cross, are all realities for us, his disciples. Our presence here calls on others to care, our mission of helping others witnesses God’s love, our day-to-day struggles and little victories on the way give the world the type of strength and power it truly needs.
The Sunday Website at St. Louis University: (https://liturgy.sluhostedsites.org/25OrdB091921/reflections_rolheiser.html)
Fr. Ron offers this… There are different kinds of power in our world. We see military power, muscle power, political power, charismatic power, psychological power and of course moral power. These of course exhibit themselves through various types of authority, as some seek to force us into accepting certain demands, while others can gently persuade us towards acceptance.
Imagine four persons in a room: The first is a powerful dictator who rules a country. His word commands armies and his shifting moods intimidate subordinates. He wields a brutal power. Next to him sits a gifted athlete who is at the peak of his physical prime, a man whose quickness and strength have few equals. His skills are a graceful power for which he is much admired and envied.
The third person is a rock star whose music and charisma can electrify an audience and fill a room with a soulful energy. We see her face is on billboards and she is what you call a household name. Finally, we have too in the room a newborn, a baby, lying in its crib, seemingly without any power or strength whatsoever, unable to even ask for what it needs. Which of these is ultimately the most powerful?
Ironically, it’s the baby who ultimately wields the greatest power. The dictator could kill it, the athlete could easily outperform it in a race, and the rock star could seemingly out-glow it with sheer dynamism, but the baby has a different kind of power. It can touch hearts in a way that a dictator, an athlete, or a rock star cannot. Its innocent, wordless presence, without physical strength, can transform a room and a heart in a way that guns, muscle, and charisma cannot. We watch our language and actions around a baby, less so around athletes and rock stars. The powerlessness of a baby touches us at a deeper moral place.
And this is the way we find and experience God's power here on earth, sometimes to our great frustration. And this is the way that Jesus was deemed powerful during his lifetime. The entire Gospel make this clear, from beginning to end. Jesus was born as a baby, powerless, and he died hanging helplessly on a cross with bystanders mocking his powerlessness. Yet both his birth and his death manifest the kind of power upon which we can ultimately build our lives.
This reflection helped me see something else… I see today’s readings offering a choice and a challenge in Childish Behavior vs. Child-Like Behavior. The First Reading from Wisdom shows a very “childish” people who are obviously threatened by the possibility that God might be in their midst. “Let us see whether his words be true; let us find out what will happen to him… Let us condemn him to a shameful death; for according to his own words, God will take care of him.” Can you hear the snide and childish tone? Who are my elementary and middle school students here? It’s the tone of a BULLY isn’t it? We know that bullying at any age is wrong, and that’s what St. James tells us today: “Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice.” But he then compares to something better, saying that “the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity.”
Jesus’ invitation has always revolved around calling on us to become more “Child-Like” in our level of trust and humility. In fact, it would seem that it is this quality that reduces the powerful to nothing, for as we heard Fr. Ron’s reflection state earlier, a “child-like” infant quality moves others to care for the “child” more than themselves. Maybe this is a good explanation of why Jesus told The Twelve (and us) that “if anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” When opportunities to serve come upon us, it’s like Christ is taking that child, placing it in OUR midst, and putting his arms around it, saying, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.”
Maybe it comes down to this… Don’t be like the people in the First Reading, trying to wield power, talent, and charisma to control the moment for themselves to test out and prove that their way is best. Rather, take the challenge of our Lord, and serve “the child” among us, living with, as St. James put it, “the wisdom from above that is “peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits.”
The gentle power of our our Lord lying in a manger, or quietly reaching into the hearts of the needy, or struggling to carry his cross, are all realities for us, his disciples. Our presence here calls on others to care, our mission of helping others witnesses God’s love, our day-to-day struggles and little victories on the way give the world the type of strength and power it truly needs.
The Sunday Website at St. Louis University: (https://liturgy.sluhostedsites.org/25OrdB091921/reflections_rolheiser.html)
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