Nor must you allow yourselves to be called teachers, for you have only one Teacher, the Christ.
Mt.23:10
The desire for honorific titles is a common enough human weakness for Jesus to see the need to address it.
It's intriguing that the Church chooses this scripture for the memorial of Saint Thomas Aquinas, one of the Church's greatest of teachers. Maybe a key is the word "allow". This infers a fostering and encouragement of the title.
For me this is a temptation from the world, a desire to become a mini-god in place of Jesus. The world exalts the rich, the powerful, the beautiful and the brainy while turning sharply from the poor, the weak, the plain and the simple. Scripture records Jesus being drawn more to the later group.
So, the message from scripture for me this morning? A warning. There is a road to Hell and it is paved with self-exaltation.
Saint Thomas Aquinas, please pray for me.
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