FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING

Homily for 23 September 2020, Wednesday of the 25th Week in Ordinary Time, Luke 9:1-6

Today’s Gospel tells us Jesus sent out the Twelve on a mission and “gave them POWER and AUTHORITY.”

This evening I invite you to reflect on POWER and AUTHORITY, and how Jesus taught his disciples how to handle it in a manner that does not corrupt or destroy those who are entrusted with it.

In the famous fiction trilogy “Lord of the Rings” by JRR Tolkien, which became even more famous as a film series, Tolkien uses the ring as a symbol of power.

This ring brings with it a curse; whoever dares TO WEAR IT is put under its spell. He becomes so intoxicated by the power that goes with it so that he loses himself. The ring as it were possesses him and makes him believe that he himself is the Lord.

In short it becomes the “Ring of the Lord” making the one who wears it forget the real “Lord of the Ring”. It unleashes in him all its corruptive and destructive powers.

The real secret about dealing with it is the challenge of HAVING it but NOT WEARING IT it. Among all the characters in the story who laid their hands on the ring, somehow only the gentle Hobbit named Frodo had the purity of heart that gave him the strength of character to resist the temptation to wear it. He alone was found fit to carry out the mission of bringing it to the fire of Mount Doom in Mordor, where it was forged, in order to destroy it. Only this could put an end to its evil spell.

TO HAVE THE RING, BUT NOT TO WEAR IT—that’s the secret. Only he who could hold it while resisting the temptation to wear it could have true power. He had to have the truthfulness to admit that he wasn’t the Lord of the Ring, and the humility to renounce the ambition to possess it. Ironically, in the end, even Frodo is tempted to wear it. He is only liberated from it when Gollum bites off his finger with the ring on it. He loses his foothold and falls into the fire of Mount Doom with the ring.

In today’s Gospel, even as Jesus entrusts the power of the kingdom, he cautions his disciples at the same time about what it takes to be able to handle this power well.

The first reading from the book of Proverbs seems to complement very well this motif about the proper handling of authority. The one who has been entrusted with the Word of God seems to be aware of the power that goes with it. And so he is begging God only for two things. He says, “Keep lying and falsehood far away from me, and give me neither poverty nor plenty.” In short, he is asking, first, for TRUTHFULNESS, and second, for SIMPLICITY of life.

These were also the two things the saint we celebrate today was known for: St. Padre Pio. He is known to have struggled a lot with the devil over these two things. As a consequence, like St. Paul, St. Padre Pio is known to have carried in his body the stigmata, the marks of Jesus. (Gal 6:17). In another passage, in 2 Cor 12:7 Paul seems to explain what these marks were for, “So that I might not become too proud“, he says. Meaning, so that he might not be corrupted by the power that went with the revelations that he was receiving, “a thorn in the flesh was given to me… to beat me, to keep me from being too puffed up.”

In the Gospel Jesus also emphasizes the aspect of SIMPLICITY when he instructs his disciples not to allow themselves to be enslaved by materials things. He also teaches them how to handle rejection. He seems well aware of what human beings are capable of doing when their egos are hurt. He tells them instead to learn to shake it off like dust from one’s feet.

He also orients them what the power that he entrusts to them is all about. Firstly, it is about bringing Good News to those who are despairing, about making God’s kingdom already a present reality by putting an end to the spell of evil in this world. Secondly, it is about bringing care and consolation, comfort and wholeness to those who are suffering, sick, and broken. In short, it is about bringing HOPE to the hopeless and HEALING to the sick.

Dear brothers and sisters, be careful of the enchanted ring of power and authority. It has the power to corrupt and destroy even the best and the brightest. Power and authority can be handled only by little people, by the pure of heart, by those who can hold it but do not presume that they are entitled to wear it. It comes in many forms: political power, economic power, scientific and technological power, military power. Even the spiritual and moral authority entrusted to us is another form of power, it can corrupt us too. Nothing can save us from the curse that goes with it except the constant reminder that we are mere stewards; we’re not the Lord of the ring.