As I went through the exhibit, I couldn’t help but think about how the human spirit has always been inclined toward the trappings of power and splendor. Maybe Napoleon was more ostentatious than most, but history is full of examples of those who seek authority to rule over others, and to do it in style. Precisely for this reason, when true Divinity, true Omnipotence entered our world in the Person of Jesus Christ, he preached service and poverty as virtues to aspire to. Jesus gave his apostles real authority in leading his Church, but he sought to form them in a way different from worldly models.
The Gospels are full of examples of this. The brothers James and John want to sit at his right and left hands; Jesus tells them that he who serves is greatest of all (Mk 10:42-43). Peter believes he knows better than Jesus that he should not have to suffer; Jesus tells him to get behind him, for he is thinking in worldly not in godly ways (Mt 16:22-23). John is jealous when others are doing works in Jesus’s name; Jesus tells him to not be (Lk 9:49-50). Jesus himself gives a final testimony about his attitude toward worldly power when he tells Pontius Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this world” (Jn 18:36). Jesus came to serve, not to be served, and he wants his Church to be the same way.
In the Gospel today, Jesus makes it clear that this standard is one to be embodied by every disciple, not just those at the Church’s highest levels. Today’s passage is a direct continuation of last week’s Gospel, when we heard Luke’s account of the Beatitudes. Jesus declared that “the blessed” – the word really just means those who are spiritually happy, joyful – are those who recognize that their deepest desires cannot be satisfied by the trappings of this world but only in the world to come, and so they embrace sorrow and suffering here now in order to live now for the heavenly kingdom. Jesus calls everyone who follows him to be among those who strive for this ideal, who seek to be among “the blessed.”
In today’s passage, Jesus describes how his disciples, “the blessed,” having oriented themselves interiorly to the world to come, should treat others. His standard is not that of the world – not the grasping, contentious, zero sum game that so often dominates the various dynamics we are familiar with: political, social, even interpersonal. Jesus’s standard is entirely new because it is modeled on himself. It is a standard that is more than an ideal – it’s a calling by grace to see by a new lens every interaction we have with others, to allow every relationship to be transformed just as our relationship with God has been transformed.
Our first reading today provides a wonderful example of just this kind of thinking. David has been anointed king of Israel, but he’s being hunted by Saul, the previous king but the one who still has all the power. David and his cohort come upon Saul’s army in the night, and David’s general Abishai offers to kill Saul and put the conflict to an end. It must have surely been a tempting idea. David, after all, was the legitimate king, and Saul had been trying to murder him for some time. To be rid of Saul, David would no longer have to hide out and could take up his duty of actually ruling the people. In the logic of the world, killing Saul is not only the correct, efficient thing to do, but to not do so seems ludicrous.
However, David is attentive to a higher wisdom. He recognizes that how he treats others is indicative of his attitude toward God – especially when it happens to be his own former king, who had been anointed by God. And so, he chooses mercy. Mercy means inconvenience for himself – in fact, it means the continuation of a threat to his own life. But by showing restraint, and by being attentive to a wisdom beyond that of the world, David exerts a power, an authority that speaks to his own moral excellence.
Pietro Antonio Magatti, David Spares Saul's Life (c. 1760)
Our day to day lives normally do not feature the kind of life and death choices that David faced. But we do find ourselves in fraught relationships, struggles over authority and influence, tough decisions about whether to act in a way convenient for ourselves but harmful to others. David’s example reminds us that we must be attentive to a wisdom higher than the world’s way of thinking. This is all the more true, of course, in light of what Jesus Christ has done for us. Jesus doesn’t just command us to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us; he illustrates what this looks like by his own passion and death. In the words of St. Paul, he died for us while we were still sinners (Rom 5:8) and he forgave us despite the fact that he was condemned for our offenses (Rom 4:25). With such a Savior, with such a Model to keep always before our eyes, we as his disciples are to personify in our dealings with others the wisdom of mercy, the power and splendor of charity.
We are living at a very important time, not only in our world, but in our Church. We have seen all too clearly in recent months the shocking scandals of how those who claim to follow Christ have instead followed a wisdom of the world. The very disciples who have been entrusted with authority have too often abused that privilege – they have misused their power either for their own gain, or for some misunderstanding of what is best for the Body of Christ. Thank God that we are now grappling with what true authority demands, what it must be if it is to be faithful to the Lord’s commands. You may know that just in the last few days Pope Francis has been meeting with bishops from around the world to discern better ways to protect the young and the vulnerable and to hold those in authority to account.
While this is certainly good news, we can’t forget that the renewal of the Church – the reinvigoration of the witness of Christ to the world – also includes us. We should call for justice for victims and accountability for those who have abuse or misused their authority – no doubt. But we also must be aware of the ways we too can become enamored with power and privilege. In our lives, we can become enraptured with material things, or consumed with the desire to gain more and more, or fixated on the wants of Number One rather than those in need. In our relationships, we misuse our own power when we become petty, or hold grudges, or judge the value of another person, or refuse to forgive out of spite or even legitimate grievance. Don’t get me wrong – these sins and offenses are not on the scale of the sins, and in many cases the crimes, of the worst of the offenders we have heard and read about. At the same time, we each have room to grow in following Christ more closely. What a wonderful witness we can give to the world and to our fellow Christians when we are willing to not only call for renewal but to work for it within ourselves! We may not be responsible for the crisis we are now in, but we can be a part of its solution – we can give testimony to a wisdom higher than that of this world, to Jesus Christ, “the Power of God and the Wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1:24).
Friends, we are about ten days out from the season of Lent. We need not wait until then to begin, with the Lord’s help, a work of renewal within our hearts – to see where it is that we, as the Lord’s “blessed,” can be transformed in our relationships with others. We can strive for justice, and demand what is right, while also being examples – as David was – of listening to a wisdom higher than what the world practices. Every interaction, every relationship, every encounter is an opportunity to exhibit the world’s values or the Lord’s. May we seek the power and splendor that comes from knowing Christ and becoming like him in all that we do and to every person whom we meet.
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