Each priest, when he dresses to celebrate Mass, puts on, as part of their vestments, both a stole and belt. The belt symbolizes the rope with which a victorious army would bind their defeated captives, while the stole symbolizes the wooden yoke which would be placed on the shoulders of the captives to further render them helpless. The belt and stole are worn by the priest to remind him that he is a “slave of Christ”, “captured” by him, and bound to go wherever He directs him. This may sound rather harsh and cruel, until we realize that the priest wants to be a slave and captive of Christ. When he became a priest, he voluntarily gave up his own will and “surrendered” to Jesus, to the carrying out of Christ’s will, and not his own. It is meant to be a demonstration of humility and trust, and a counter to human pride and self-will that lies at the core of human sin.
St Paul often speaks in his letters of being a “slave” or “servant” of Jesus, not out of necessity, or force, but out of a desire to be at the service of Christ, in recognition of all that Jesus had done for him, through his death and resurrection. Jesus says in the gospel of Mark (10.45) that he came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for humanity’s sins. Indeed in Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he goes so far as to say that Jesus “emptied himself” of his divine glory, and “took the form of a slave, being born in human likeness, and humbling himself even further, to death on the cross”, (Phil 2: 6-8) where, bound and helpless, he offered his life to the Father as atonement for our sins. Again, Jesus did not have to do this, he was not forced to it by his Father. No, he voluntarily chose to submit himself to such a humbling fate, to save us from the consequences of our selfish independence and prideful rejection of God’s will. St Paul was blown clean away to realize on the road to Damascus, that, at the moment when Paul was persecuting Christians, and so was an enemy of Christ, that Jesus sought him out to offer him salvation, Paul says, in his first letter to Timothy “I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me…appointing me to his service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor , and a man of violence. But I received mercy. and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners- of whom I am the foremost” (1 Timothy 1: 12 – 15). So entranced was Paul by such amazing love shown by Jesus to himself, that he determined to spend the rest of his life in service of him, because, as he says in the letter to the Philippians, “Christ Jesus has captured me, and made me his own” (Phil 3: 12). This is not cruel slavery and harsh punishment. This is the free gift of himself to serve Jesus with his whole heart, mind, soul and body because that is what Jesus did for him. It might be more meaningful and acceptable to our modern minds, to use the word “captivated”, rather than “captured”. St Paul gave his life the pursuit and service of Jesus, because Jesus had totally “captivated” him.
And so, the priest offers himself in the same way to Jesus and wears the stole and the belt as outward signs of his inner submission to Jesus’ will. This is meant to be in total contrast to the wicked priests in our first reading, and to the scribes and Pharisees in our gospel, who wore the signs and symbols of their office, not as a way to demonstrate serving God, but as a way of showing off to the people how good and holy and important they were. In contrast to Jesus, who said to God “Not what I want, but what you want me to do” (Matthew 26: 39), these guys were really saying to God, “Not what you want, but what I want!”.
The phylacteries and tassels, mentioned by Jesus in our gospel today, were meant to be worn by the scribes and Pharisees, in order to remind them of their call to love God with all their heart, mind, and strength (last Sunday’s gospel). The phylacteries were two leather capsules, one fastened to the forearm by a leather strap and the other suspended from a headband. These capsules contained small parchments on which were written certain key texts from the Old Testament and were signs of committing one’s deeds and heart to God alone. The tassels were attached to the hem or edge of the cloak worn by Jews as a prayer shawl. They were prescribed by God in the Jewish Law to be worn as a reminder “to keep all the commandments of the Lord without going wantonly after the desires of your heart and eyes.” (Numbers 15: 37-41). Unfortunately, in Jesus’ time, as he remarks in our gospel today, these signs of submission to God’s will, were instead worn by the religious leaders as signs of their superiority to the common people. The wider the phylactery, the longer and more elaborate the tassel, the more “important” the individual wearing them.
So the phylacteries and tassels of Jesus’ time have become the stole and the belt of our time. But, just as the wearer of those Jewish symbols could subvert their real meaning and use them as signs of self-importance and pride, so the wearing of the stole and the belt, and all the other garments worn by the clergy in performing their duties, can become means to “lording” it over others and commanding their respect. So, Jesus reminds his disciples, in today’s gospel, not to take on airs and graces, and titles, such as “Rabbi, Father, Instructor”, but to consider themselves as servants, slaves of others, putting themselves at the service of others, rather than dominating them, controlling them, subjugating them. This, of course, is directed firstly to the priests and bishops of our era, but, since we, through baptism, are made a “royal priesthood”, then it applies also to you as lay people, who have influence over others through their ministry, or leadership. Do we regard ourselves as “servants” or “slaves” of others, having the responsibility of sharing faith with them, so as to lead them to salvation by bringing them to place their faith and trust in Jesus, or do we treat others as our servants or slaves, and seek to dominate, to control and to force them to go along with our will, rather than the will of God? As Jesus says in our gospel today “whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”