Good and Bad Ministers

Scripture Reflection for the Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time (October 30, 2011)

Scripture Readings:
Malachi 1:14b-2:2b, 8-10
Psalm 131
Thessalonians 2:7b-9, 13
Matthew 23:1-12

Today’s First Reading and Gospel have an almost eerie contemporary quality to them. In our church, still wracked by sexual abuse scandals in this country, in Ireland, and in so many other parts of the world, these readings condemn the corruption of the religious leaders of Israel, but they seem to speak to our religious leaders today as well. In the reading from the prophet Malachi, Israel’s priests are condemned for their lack of care in offering sacrifice and for their lack of care in transmitting Israel’s traditions to the people for whom they were responsible. In the Gospel Jesus condemns the pious lay leaders of his day—the scribes and Pharisees—for not practicing what they preach, for laying burdens of religious observance on people, for their showy religiosity, and their vanity of dress and self-pride. In both cases, like some of our religious leaders today, the basic sin is a deep disregard for the people they had been called to serve.

This would all be pretty depressing if it weren’t for the Second Reading from Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians and for the last lines of the Gospel Reading. Paul’s description of his own ministry—some of the first words, by the way, written in the New Testament—make up one of the best descriptions in all of Christian literature of what ministry is about. If what we read in Malachi and the Gospel are descriptions of “bad ministers,” what we read here—and in those last lines of the gospel—are descriptions of “good ministers”—the kind of ministers all of us want to be.

We know from letters like Galatians and 1Corinthians that Paul would not mince words with the churches he felt himself responsible for. But here we see Paul opening up his heart, showing us the person behind all that toughness. He speaks of doing ministry with a gentle presence—as gentle as a nursing mother (a very interesting image of ministry, by the way!). He talks about the affection he has for the people of Thessalonika, and how he shared his very self at the same time that he preached the gospel to them. And yet, as a good minister of the gospel, he did not let his personal feelings, however, positive, to get in the way: Paul’s own words were not so much his own. He made room for them to become the Word of God.

Paul’s description of good ministers dovetails almost exactly with those of Jesus at the end of the Gospel. The main thing, Jesus says, is not to focus on oneself—titles aren’t important because Jesus’ followers are all brothers and sisters under one Father and one Master. Ministry is about service, and it is in the acceptance of this that gives life—only those who “humble themselves” in service will “be exalted.” A bit counterintuitive perhaps, but if you’ve ever tried it you know what Jesus means!

Let’s go back to that idea that we are all brothers and sisters, as Jesus says. This idea has a bit of an echo in the First Reading when Malachi says “Have we not all one father? Has not the one God created us?” What I find in this is perhaps the most important ingredient for being a good minister. If the priests in Malachi’s day and the scribes and Pharisees in those of Jesus committed the basic sin of disregarding the importance of the people they served, Paul’s and Jesus’ basic attitude was a recognition of the dignity and worth and goodness of every person to whom and with whom they ministered.

This is why Paul can be so gentle, why he can give his very self, why he can preach the Word with such selflessness. This is what it takes to really serve people, and really be humble before them. In the New Testament and in the Christian tradition, though rooted in the Old, this recognition of the basic dignity and worthiness of fellow Christians is named the “Priesthood of All Believers.” I think it is only when we really understand this “common priesthood” that we can begin to discern our own call to ministry in the church, as Catholics on Call supports us to do. It is only when we really understand this that we have a chance to avoid being the “bad ministers” our readings today so strongly condemn and to open ourselves up to being the “good minsters” of whom Jesus, Paul, and so many women and men down through the ages are examples.

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