Happy Birthday Bill – my father would have been 96 today. May he rest in peace!
In today’s Gospel, there’s mention of pomp and ceremony. To be more accurate about people who get caught up in pomp and ceremony.
Sadly, truth told, we priests can get caught up in this a bit more than necessary. I heard of a priest once speaking to a group of priests and he talked about titles. He mentioned a group of priest friends out playing golf together – “Great shot Mick”. “Ah well done Peter” etc and the next day writing to each other:
“The Very Rev Michael Canon ….. whatever, PP.VF …..”
He concluded his comments with “who are we trying to impress lads, the postman?!!
It’s wider than Church of course. We can get overly caught up in titles and what we perceive to be our rightful place – our entitlement.
Maybe the thought for today is around “keeping it simple”. Keeping it simple doesn’t mean making it any less important – just that we keep the focus where it needs to be.
Now where did I leave my broader phylactery???
(actually I just googled to see what is a phylactery … a leather pouch worn by Jewish people at Morning Prayer to remind them of the Law. In itself, of course a good thing, the Lord’s issue was about the phylacteries becoming the story in themselves.)