A group of African missionaries were sent to work in a diocese in Zambia. On arrival they discovered that almost all the missionaries in the diocese were Americans. The American missionaries called the bishop, who was African, by his first name. The newly arrived African missionaries thought that this was inappropriate and decided to change it. They taught the people to call the bishop “My Lord.” This was new to the people but they were ready to learn. One day a woman came to see the bishop and the person she met was one of the American priests. She asked him, “Where is Our Lord?” to which the priestly gleefully replied, “Our Lord is in the tabernacle.”

Vatican II brought much change and renewal in the church. But it is interesting that the area of titles and way of addressing church leaders has undergone practically no change whatsoever. A priest is still called “Reverend Father,” a bishop “My Lord” or “Your Excellency,” a cardinal “Your Eminence,” the head of a religious community is still the “superior.” One wonders how the church allowed the use of these high-sounding titles to develop among the faithful, given the fact that the church has always read today's gospel which cautions them against the use of titles that reflect a superior-inferior relationship.

Of course, we should not take the words of Jesus too literally. The message of Christ has more to do with attitudes and behaviour than with the use of words and terminologies. Take the case of a self-styled prophet who founded a church, asked his followers to address him as “Brother,” yet sits on a throne and have his “brothers and sisters” come to him walking on their knees. Or the case of high-level government officials who are called ministers, which literally means servants, yet this does not make them any humbler. The Law of Christ has more to do with attitudes and behaviour than with just words.

Attachment to power and social esteem -- love to have the place of honour at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi (Matthew 23:6-7) -- compromises the Christ-like witness of the servant of God. But, here comes the good news: it does not nullify the divine authority of the office. The person occupying a teaching office among the people of God may be personally unfaithful, not practising what they teach. But God is faithful and guarantees that the teaching office itself is not contaminated with error, and so the teaching itself remains sound and valid.

The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach (vv 2-3).

Should we ever have the misfortune of knowing some Christian leaders who are as hypocritical as the scribes and the Pharisees described in today's gospel, the challenge for us would be to try and make a distinction between what they teach, which may be sound, and how they live, which may not be worthy of emulation. We must not throw away the baby with the bathwater. Abuse of an office does not nullify the validity of the office itself. Those who distance themselves from the church because they heard or saw unbecoming behaviour on the part of some church ministers may indeed be throwing away the baby with the bathwater.

The reading ends with a call for evangelical humility on the part of Christian leaders. What is evangelical humility? It is the recognition that those we evangelize or minister to are not below us but are, in fact, equal to us in the eyes of God. With this humility, preaching becomes not talking down to the people but sharing with them our common struggle to understand and live God's word. With evangelical humility the basic pattern of relationship between ministers and the people of God whom they serve becomes not that of father-son or teacher-student but brother-brother, brother-sister or friend-friend.

For in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. … There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:26-28).