Monday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time
Photo by Phil Roussin; Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pbr-photos/14817553966
Defamers of the Catholic Church frequently quote today’s words of Jesus, “Call no one father,” as a repudiation of religious honorifics of any kind. Our dear Pope Francis used to tease those addressing him as “Holy Father” by returning the favor with “Holy Son” or “Holy Daughter.”
Our church is ripe with hierarchical titles: Your Excellency, Your Grace, Monsignor, Rev. Mother, Mother Prioress, Mother General, Your Eminence and more. The Knights of Columbus confer titles such as “Grand Knight.” In the Eastern Church, patriarchs are dubbed “Your Beatitude.” It is grandiosity for its own sake that is the issue. St. Augustine clarified, “For you I am a bishop, with you I am a Christian.”
As a son of Augustine, Pope Leo XIV has stated that the bishop’s role, and that of any cleric, is to be humble, close to the people, walking with the people, suffering with them, and always seeking to better live the Gospel. Pope Francis called this “having the scent of the sheep.”
A humorous tale is told of a world-renowned prelate seen browsing through a marketplace in his archdiocese with his deacon assistant. One of the vendors bellowed out from his market stall, “Sir, come over here and you will get a very good deal!” The appalled deacon assistant sternly castigated the vendor: “Do you know whom you are addressing? Know your place, man! He is no ordinary ‘sir.’ He is His Eminence the Cardinal Archbishop!” The unimpressed vendor replied, “Despite that, I will still give him a very good deal!”
Honorifics matter. As a longtime high school teacher my students were never to address me by my first name. Not because I needed it but because they needed it.
Unless all titles for Christians (especially the ecclesiastical ones) are rooted in Christian service to others, they are out of sync with the Gospel. For truly our most august honorifics are “servant” and “disciple.”
—Timothy J. Cronin