Tuesday of the Second Week in Lent

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/030612.cfm

A sunken tree stump

They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues,
greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation 'Rabbi.'

In most areas of human life there are important, well-respected leaders and we like to rub shoulders with them. They come in all forms: politicians, business people, doctors, teachers, entertainers, athletes and so forth. And, unless we happen to know otherwise, we expect exemplary behavior from them; we know how powerfully their public lives affect impressionable young people. But, way too often, great people do not look so good under closer scrutiny. If their smiles are silver and gold, their feet are clay.

The same is true of religion. Our ministers, male and female, widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels and love to be greeted in marketplaces. Their display may be impressive but their personal lives are sometimes awful. "But," someone might ask, "Why should they be different than other great people?"

Well, for one thing: they’re closer to The Source. If bankers are richer than everyone else; shouldn’t religious leaders be holier than others?

It is worse than disorienting when we learn that some religious leaders engage in criminal activity, and that others wouldn’t know the Truth if it bit them on the leg. It is scandalous. Oddly, Jesus urges us to do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example.

Saint Francis also urged his friars to respect the authority of priests and bishops, even when those authorities were demonstrably unworthy of their posts. In some cases, they ran the friars out of the country! The Saint knew the friars’ humility would be their most formidable weapon against the clerics; in fact, it might easily win a victory for the Gospel they could not have achieved by strenuous preaching.

I have often seen this among Christians and Catholics: quiet humility overcomes wickedness where loud accusations fail. The Church is so easily rent apart by divisions; and so slowly healed. We must not allow the foibles or felonies of our leaders to divide us. 

Rather, we should use the processes of reconciliation that are available to us; and watch hopefully as the Lord’s words are fulfilled: Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted."