IN his reflection on this Sunday’s Gospel, Fr. Ron Rolheiser asks us to 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 at the peak of his physical prowess, a man whose quickness and strength have few equals. His skills are graceful, for which he is much admired and envied.
The next person is a rock star whose music and charisma can electrify an audience and fill a room with a soulful energy. Her face is on billboards, and she is a household name. That’s still another kind of power.
Finally, we have too in a 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 powerful?”
Without further comparisons, Fr. Rolheiser argues that the baby wields the most incredible power. He explains:
“The athlete could crush it, the dictator could kill it, and the rock star could out-grow it in 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 strength, can transform a room and a heart in a way that guns, muscle, and charisma cannot. The powerlessness of a baby touches us at a deeper moral place.”
Fr. Rolheiser’s insights on the power of weakness or vulnerability explain the transformative effects of Jesus Christ’s teachings, life, and mission. If everyone, particularly our nations’ leaders, would be like a child who evokes in us the virtues of love, peace, care, justice, and humility, then we would have a better world.
Indeed, Christ’s message of being the last of all and the servant of all, like a little child, would bring needed change in society and the world of politics. It’s because Christ’s life and message are about forgiving one’s enemies, loving those who are different from us, caring for the strangers, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and not hindering children to come to him.
But we can’t fulfill his mission without taking up the cross and dying to one’s ego or pride. We can’t be agents of change without being servant-leaders. So, we can’t lead with greed, corruption, and self-aggrandizement. We’ve got to think of ourselves as the last of all and the servant of all.
The Second Reading from the Letter of St. James (3:16-4:3) supports this contention. The author asks:
“Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from? Is it not from your passions that make war within your members? You covet but do not possess. You kill and envy but you cannot obtain; you fight and wage war. You do not possess because you do not ask. You ask but do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”
We pray for world leaders and governments, especially in places “where jealousy and selfish ambition exist” and where there is disorder and every foul practice.”
We pray that they have “the wisdom from above,” which is “first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy and insincerity.” Amen..
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The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Asian Journal, its management, editorial board and staff.
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Fr. Rodel “Odey” Balagtas is the pastor of Incarnation Church in Glendale, California.
