We won­der at times how in­tel­li­gent and re­spect­ed lead­ers can so eas­i­ly be­come guilty of fraud, false­hood or some form of bla­tant im­moral­i­ty. They spent time por­tray­ing them­selves as sin­less guides and ex­am­ples. Je­sus warned his lis­ten­ers against the hypocrisy of the scribes and Phar­isees, the re­li­gious teach­ers on whom the peo­ple de­pend­ed for scrip­tur­al in­ter­pre­ta­tion and spir­i­tu­al guid­ance. "But don't do what they do, be­cause they don't prac­tice what they teach." (Matthew 23:3). Je­sus added how much they loved places of ho­n­our and greet­ings of high re­spect. None of us is with­out fault or be­yond re­proach and cor­rec­tion. We all have to pray for de­liv­er­ance from the Evil One and pro­tec­tion from temp­ta­tions that reg­u­lar­ly threat­en our cher­ished val­ues. This is a very im­por­tant re­minder when we are flat­tered and ex­alt­ed or high­ly ho­n­oured.

In the Old Tes­ta­ment we read of the sin­ful­ness of Sodom. The king of Sodom was de­feat­ed and de­cid­ed to make a deal with the pa­tri­arch Abram. "Give me the peo­ple but take the pos­ses­sions for your­self" he said to Abram. But Abram re­fused to "take a thread or san­dal strap or any­thing that be­longs to you, so you can nev­er say, "I made Abram rich" (Gen­e­sis 14:21-23). Abram did not ac­cept the bar­gain, re­gard­less of the wealth it would have brought him. He pre­ferred to keep his char­ac­ter clean. Al­so, in the book of Daniel we read of the king flat­ter­ing Daniel for his "in­sight, in­tel­li­gence and ex­tra­or­di­nary wis­dom." He want­ed Daniel to in­ter­pret an in­scrip­tion and promised him ex­pen­sive clothes, a gold chain and the third high­est po­si­tion in the king­dom. Wealth and pow­er-what strong temp­ta­tions! Daniel knew the in­scrip­tion was a se­vere judg­ment on the king and he was not pre­pared to mod­i­fy its mes­sage or ac­cept any re­ward. He replied to the king: "You may keep your gifts, and give your re­wards to some­one else." (Daniel 5:17)

No ma­te­r­i­al gift or re­ward can change evil to good. God can­not be bribed. As Je­sus warned, "There is noth­ing cov­ered that won't be un­cov­ered, noth­ing hid­den that won't be made known. (Luke 12:2). When Paul gave his farewell ad­dress to the Eph­esian el­ders he re­mind­ed them, "I have not cov­et­ed any­one's sil­ver or gold or cloth­ing." (Acts 20:33) It is a very rare and ad­mirable way to end one's ca­reer or mis­sion. St Thomas Aquinas wrote, "The mind should teach the heart to feel; the heart should teach the mind to see." Such feel­ing and see­ing re­quire un­ceas­ing vig­i­lance over what one ac­cepts and cher­ish­es. We must keep on learn­ing to see with new eyes, keep our goals not on the things that will en­rich us or in­flate our pride, but on what will trans­form us in­to bet­ter ser­vants of the God who nei­ther slum­bers nor sleeps.