The long-robed spoofers

The column below appears in today's Irish Times.

By Michael Commane
On one of the days that Superstorm Sandy caused devastation in the Caribbean and the east coast of the United States I was in a shop in Dublin which my late mother frequented. It's seldom I'm in the shop. Out of the blue, the owner, gently smiling, said to me that he still had a thank you letter I had written him for attendng my mother's funeral. My mother died in 1988. And just as I came out of the shop and began to untie my dog from a pole a young girl stopped and told me what a lovely dog she was.

The power of the positive word. For the next 20 minutes or so, walking home, I was naturally recalling what the shopkeeper had said. Yes, it put a smile on my face. A nice man. And even the little girl's comment about my dog did me no harm.

That same day US television networks were showing the incredible damage that Sandy had caused and at the same time recalling the small human stories of kindness that helped people get through the disaster - even the kind words a Republican governor had for a Democratic president.

What nicer accolade to give someone than to say she or he is a kind person.
What better ambition to have than to be a kind person.

All groups, all organisations, all societies, all religions have their nasty and kind people. Yes, rules and regulations have a role to play but surely it has to be kindness, human kindness that shines through and saves us. As Christians we believe that our kind deeds and words are especially appeciated and recognised by the God we believe in, praise and adore.

In tomorrow's Gospel we read the words of Jesus: "Beware of the scribes who like to walk about in long robes, to be greeted respectfully in the market squares, to take the front seats in the synoguges and places of honour at banquets; these are the men who devour the property of widows and for show offer long prayers." (Mark 12:38)

It is quite extraordinary how redolent those words are today in our times and in our society.

Of course rules and regulations play a role, an important role in any group, in any society, in any religion but they are means to an end. And it seems that sometimes we can get lost in ritual and even turn prayer into some sort of formula said by the elite, which can easily imply that the 'ordinary people' are not as important as the 'ruling classes'. Surely that's what Jesus is warning against. And if the Gospel is to be considered an important piece of literature, even inspired word, then it has value and significance in every age.

We should never understimate the kind deed, the kind word and you know, so often they are done away from the limelight, away from the cameras, away from the important seats at the market squares.

And again Jesus stresses the simple kind deeds, the deeds that so often go unseen and unrecognised by the great and the powerful. He refers to the poor widow, who gives a penny to the treasury: "In truth I tell you, this poor widow has put more in than all who have contributed to the treasury."

Sometimes I wonder is there something in the human psyche that always tempts us to give far more credence and authority to the words and deeds of the powerful than those of the little people.

And all the time in the Gospel, Jesus keeps stressing the importance of the weak and fragile. Surely, it's the small kind routine events in our daily lives that inspire and lead us to God.

I think of the shop keeper and the little girl.