Our tendency toward adulation is wrong
THE Gospel reading for the liturgy on Sunday, October 22, included this sentence: ‘You know that among the pagans their so-called rulers lord it over them, and their great men make their authority felt. This is not to happen among you.’ There’s always a danger that people in authority will lord it over others or at least try to do so. In the current environment it’s easy to criticise the church but it’s a valid target.
The dominant role the church played in Irish society was not healthy. So much about the behaviour of the institutional church in the Ireland in which I grew up was contrary to the sentiment expressed in the Gospel reading quoted above. And the priests and the bishops allowed it to happen. Of course the church did great work, there were many fine sisters and priests but the institutional church was treated with a deference that was not healthy and unfortunately responded accordingly. Bishops living in palaces, travelling around the country in fancy cars driven by chauffeurs. It was insane and all that’s happening today is that they are reaping the harvest they sowed.
But it’s the people who allow such nonsense to prevail.It has obviously something to do with our makeup. All societies look for heroes or role models. The left and the right do it: Stalin, Hitler, Mao Zedong, Franco, Salazar. Okay, they were off the scale but it happens to lesser degrees too. We had deValera, the British have the Royals. And in all cases, all paid for with tax payers’ money.
We seem to have an insatiable desire to set certain people or groups apart from the rest of us and then give them an attention and honour/respect that is preposterous. It certainly is contrary to everything that the Gospel is about. These days it’s not popular to place the clergy in a special position but they have simply been replaced by different groups.
In the days before the presidential election there was a controversy over President Michael D Higgins flying to Belfast and his car then picking him up at the airport. It all sounds crazy. There’s a top class rail service between Dublin and Belfast. Why could he not have used the train?
From time to time we get a hint of the lifestyles of our politicians and senior civil servants. They often lose the run of themselves and expect to be treated like ladies and lords of the manor. Does it ever dawn on them that they are public servants? They are in their jobs to serve the people. That’s their title.
There is something about genuine service that brings out the best in people. Parents looking after children, children caring for elderly parents, anyone who is at the service of another person knows well the difficulties involved but they also know the value of what they are doing. Is it not true that those who offer genuine service are the ones who are the most reticent to push themselves out into positions of prominence?
The adulation we give so many people and groups in society seems a madness. Has public life become a playground for narcissists? I can’t help but think of what I hear Mr Trump say and do.
The worry is there are loads of nascent Trumps out there.