Thinking Anew:SOME YEARS AGO in a sketch, three British comedians poked fun at class distinction. John Cleese, proud, tall and complete with umbrella and bowler, represented the upper class, Ronnie Barker the middle class, and little Ronnie Corbett, the working class. Each described their social advantages or disadvantages in relation to the others, an effect emphasised by their relative heights.
Barker in the middle explained that he looked up to Cleese because he was upper class, but he looked down on Corbett because he was lower class.
Corbett in his working man’s cap responded each time: “I know my place”.
As the others explained what they got from feeling superior Corbett ended with the punch line. All he got from looking up at them was “a pain in the back of my neck”. Funny but also true.
Thinking of ourselves as superior to other people in some way or another can cause problems not only for us but for society as a whole. In Ireland there have been cases in recent years which many resent where individuals in the business world and in politics exude an air of entitlement because of who they are or what they do insisting that their comforts and privileges must be protected irrespective of how that impacts on anyone else. They live the advertiser’s slogan: “Because you’re worth it”.
There is nothing new in this attachment to status and privilege. Consider tomorrow’s Gospel reading which tells us that at the very time that Jesus was explaining what a dark future held for him, in terms of suffering and death, his disciples were arguing about which of them was the greatest.
Jesus told them that “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all”. Jean Vanier offers this view of Jesus: “Jesus is not struggling to climb the ladder of promotion. He does not want to rule in society and to get the apparently best place, a place where he can exercise power, even if it is to do good. No, he is always going down the ladder, close to the earth closer to people, whoever and wherever they may be. He cannot be in a world that lives off appearances and makes people hide behind barriers and roles.” This is a testing example for Christians who are urged to be humble in a world obsessed with status and power.
It has been said that the cross is “I” crossed out but humility does not mean the complete rejection of self. After all, life is God’s gift; we are made in the image of God and on that principle depends the dignity and worth of every human being. Added to that is the fact that God touches lives in various ways at different times. As a hymn puts it: Every virtue we possess/and every victory won;/ and every thought of holiness/is his alone.
Archbishop Anthony Bloom explains that humility is about perspective: “Humility does not consist in forever trying to abase ourselves and renounce the dignity which God gives us and demands of us because we are his children not his slaves. The humility of the saints comes from the vision of the glory, the majesty, the beauty of God. It is not even a sense of contrast that gives birth to their humility, but the consciousness that God is so holy, such a revelation of perfect beauty, of love so striking that the only thing they can do in his presence is to prostrate themselves before him in an act of worship, joy and wonder. This is humility not humiliation.”
The promise here is that by seeking to be among the least we are on the way to becoming great, for it opens to us a much deeper understanding of the mystery of God and the ways of his kingdom. Jesus did not seek to abolish ambition, he redirected it.
The ambition to rule gives way to the ambition to serve; the ambition to have and to hold for oneself is replaced by the joy and the privilege of providing for others.
– GORDON LINNEY