The Word Of Peace
Homiletic Reflections On Peacemaking

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti, D. Min.

31st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

November 3, 2002

Lead with Humility in Service

   Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit.

     These words are an admonition and a warning uttered by President Franklin Roosevelt on the day of his first inauguration as president. They are words that stand against the arrogance of power that continues to rear its head up to this day. So often leadership and authority are perverted in ways that lead to unjust privilege for some and poverty for others. Too often, leadership in public office or the Church can be a means to self-importance and titles and a minimum of service. Economically, so many who live in opulence look down on those not of their class including homeless teenagers that through no fault of their own have no where to lay their head. So often the wealthy pay lip service to helping the homeless but not in their backyard! Why is this so, to put it simply, because of the human sinful condition—or in the words of the prophet Malachi—because they have broken faith. The people of God are called to leadership. But in accepting and living this call these must never be an attitude or action that suggests that we are better than anyone else. Nor can there be nay claims to special privileges before God and humanity.

    Christian leadership is about humble service—service to the truth of the gospel no matter how uncomfortable. I know that in my own case that ordination did not make me more faithful, holy, enlightened or privileged, rather, it summoned me to humble service. Titles like “deacon” mean very little if this title were to be an excuse for arrogant and abusive use of power or authority. No title is supposed to shield us from responsibility before God and humanity and no liturgical garment makes us better than anyone else—that only comes from a sincere response to the Lord in humble service. The bottom line for ordained types is this—do people meet the loving and caring Lord through the minister. But the same can be any of the baptized—do people meet Christ through us?

    Jesus points this out to us constantly and those in ordained service need to beware of the cautionary tale of the Pharisees in today’s gospel—full pf good arguments on the lips but lacking that humility, that recognition that only service is important and that makes for the leadership that embodies the loving Lord to others.

    In our time this lesson has been driven home with sledgehammer-like force. How we respond to our Lord in these times as an institution, as a people and as ministers will be noted by this and succeeding generations. If we have failed then Lord give us the courage and honesty to admit it, repent of it and move to heal the hurts occasioned by our failure. Perhaps there is a silver lining in the clouds that surround our Church.

    Franklin Roosevelt was our only president crippled by the effects of polio. Before this affliction many saw him as a tad arrogant and detached from the plight of those less fortunate than himself. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and did not know anything else but his life of advantage. But after being stricken with polio he changed, he was humbled by this experience. Doris Kearns Goodwin describes this change in him in her book, No Ordinary Time:

 Far more intensely than before, he reached out to know people, to understand them, to pick up their emotions, to put himself into their shoes. No longer belonging to his old world in the same way, he came to empathize with the poor and underprivileged, with people to whom fate had dealt a difficult hand.

    That is the leadership all of us are called to—that is the leadership of one of our Lord’s disciples. That is the leadership that enters the Kingdom.

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti, D. Min.
Created November 10, 2002