In the suggested prayers of the faithful for today, Ascension Sunday, we are asked to pray that the ‘authority of heaven will inform and guide those who govern on earth.’ It’s a concept we love to hate; authority.
Years ago, when increasing levels of authority were conferred on me, I began to study the idea of it. Initially because my experience with the people in charge of anything was either disappointing or in a few cases intolerable, I had no interest in joining the ranks. But like many of us found that the only way to change anything while working in and for institutions was to ‘move up.’
The study brought me to a group of scholars who had been studying and researching just these kinds of things since the industrial revolution and the worldwide rise of organizations: Organizational theorists. I found many ‘friends‘ along those years because I worked in a field where external authority was not supposed to exist and with people who had been trained to believe they required no outside sanctions. Physicians in the twentieth century were considered the model professional; meaning that their decisions required the oversight of only other doctors. The rules and behaviors of the organizations did not apply in my world because the battles for authority were waged on a daily basis among the different groups of people with claims to authority. The hierarchy on paper did not reflect reality: Those with titles may or may not have been recognized as legitimate by others within the organization. Like me.
As a kid critical care nurse in the early days of critical care, I experienced the heady sense of possessing knowledge that was presumably accessible only to doctors and made decisions that were not mine to make. These were chaotic times. Everything was new: The technology, the boundaries were loose. I learned first-hand that knowledge is power.
There are few highs more intoxicating than power. Because once we have it, we experience the truth that power is ceded. No one is seen as powerful because of their title or their armies or might. Powerful people become powerful because others place them in positions of power. But once we reflect on this idea of power, stop to see its influence inside ourselves and observe its effects on others, we understand Lord Acton’s mid-nineteenth century axiom.
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
In this 21st century where so many of us cede power to celebrities, politicians, unknowingly diverting us from our true dignity may we share in the prayer of the church. May we share in the joy of our brother trusting that on this Ascension Sunday, he carries us on the journey. May we cede power and authority to Heaven, all of us. May we sympathize with those perceived as powerful in this world, even pray for them.
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