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Apparently, it’s a perennial problem. Jesus decries our tendency to lord it over one another, to prefer adulation to the gentleness and deep caring described in the second reading. The sexual abuse crises in the Catholic Church and the ongoing exodus of many in the face of smug arrogance that masquerades as spirituality, have toppled us from our pedestals. This gospel mocks our self-importance and imposes a new perspective. It insists that social climbers, ordained and lay, relinquish privilege and that all disable the reflex to install certain people on pedestals. This fall from power into grace, however, fosters the equal dignity of all the baptized, sisters and brothers who “share our own selves,” and offers a place to those we might want to exclude.
Time to take this necessary fall from power seriously. Whom do we include? To whom do we listen? With whom will we eat—or not eat? Do we practice Eucharist as a prize for the perfect or medicine for the weak?