22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Published: August 28, 2016

Bishop Anthony B. Taylor preached the following homily at St. Mary Church in Ponca City, Okla. on Sunday, Aug. 28, 2016.

Bishop Taylor

Many people imagine celibacy must be the hardest thing about being a priest and but as a matter of fact, gross violations of celibacy are pretty uncommon. Indeed, that's why they are so shocking ... if they happened all the time, they wouldn't be news.

A more common threat is the vice of ambition, which well-meaning people reinforce whenever they tell their pastor: "You'd make a good bishop!" What they don’t realize is that unlike in business, success in the things of Jesus is not about career advancement.

It is a matter of dedication, not ambition. People think that being a bishop is surely better than being a simple priest and definitely better than being a lay person. It’s not. It is simply one role among many other worthy roles in the life of the Church. What is "better" is whatever God wants you to be, not what the world considers success.

In today's Gospel, Jesus addresses the issue of ambition. He uses his story of the guests at a wedding banquet to warn us not to seek the places of honor lest a more distinguished person come and the host have to tell us to give up our places, and humiliated, go and have to take our seat in the lowest place.

Rather, we should take the lowest place right from the start. If the host wants us to sit at the head table, he'll come and get us. The last shall be first and the first last.

Notice that ambition and dedication are opposites. Ambition is living for oneself, one’s own advancement while dedication is living for something bigger than oneself. Ambition is about upward mobility — the pursuit of power, while dedication is about downward mobility — the search for opportunities to serve, which often requires us to risk doing things just because they are right, even though they are not in our own personal self interest.

Jesus is the Son of God, but he came to earth to serve, not to be served, pouring out his very life on the cross for our salvation. Jesus made himself our servant and that's why we want him as our King. Jesus takes the lowest seat, but every one of us wants him to sit at the head of our table.

How about you? Some people in our mixed-up world think that fidelity to just one person, for your whole life, is almost impossible but my experience is that most people do not commit adultery and most of those who do sorely regret it and try hard not to repeat it.

Just as with priests so also with married couples, a more common threat is the vice of ambition. For some marriages ambition has become just a different kind of infidelity: by investing all their energy in trying to get ahead, many people end up just as absent to their spouse as if they would be if they were running around with another man or woman.

This pull of destructive ambition is reinforced every time we reward self-promotion in persons who really are just living for themselves. It is reinforced in any avoidable job transfer that advances career at the expense of the family.

Ambition is competitive and when we are consumed with ambition, our whole life becomes competitive, invariably bringing an attitude of competition right into the heart of the marriage. Soon the issue becomes: who's in charge here? Who wears the pants in this family? 

Dedication is the opposite of ambition. The person who is living for something bigger than himself invariably brings that big-hearted attitude home with him. The workplace becomes a place of creative cooperation, as does the home: each parent dedicated to the well-being of their spouse and their children, even at great personal sacrifice — even passing up career opportunities that would be lucrative personally but bad for the family.

The dedicated person is not interested in who sits at the head of the table at home. What he cares about is that the needs of all are met.

Ambition or dedication? This may be the greatest spiritual challenge that any of us ever face and your choice will impact every sector of your life. It is the choice between pursuing success as the world judges success, or placing yourself at the service of others in a way truly worthy of the Lord.

Ambition or dedication. The first shall be last and the last shall be first.