Give Away Your Balloon

A teacher gathered her thirty students into a room. Handing out balloons, she asked them to blow them up, write their names on them with marker, and leave them on the floor. Then they left the room to do another activity. In the meanwhile, one of her assistants pushed the desks to the side and mixed the balloons up.

When they returned, the teacher instructed them to go back into the room and look only for the balloon with their name on it. They would have only one minute to do so.

As you can imagine, pandemonium ensued as the students bumped into each other and kicked the balloons around looking just for the ones with their names on them. During the chaos, only a few of them were able to find their balloons.

Gathering them back into the corridor, the teacher said, “Okay, we are going to try something different. Instead of looking only for your balloon, pick up whichever one you find and give it to the person it belongs to. Again, you’ll only have one minute.”

Following her instructions, the students entered the room again but this time it was in a less hurried and more orderly fashion. Each one picked up a balloon and brought it to its owner. Before the minute was over, each student was holding his or her balloon.

Getting their attention, the teacher said, “The lesson I hope you all learned from this is that, when we are focused only on ourselves and what is ours, then not only do we ignore those around us but we fail to get our needs met. However, when our focus is on others and we seek to serve them, then we all get our needs met.”

In many ways, this story gets to the heart of Jesus’ message in today’s gospel. Throughout the New Testament, Jesus has harsh words for the religious leaders of His day. They had real power and authority given to them by God. That is why Jesus tells His followers to observe whatever they say. However, many of them did not use their power to help people grow spiritually. Rather they used it to help themselves to places of honor at banquets and to preferential treatment at the marketplace. Rather than seeking to serve others, they took pride in having authority, in being addressed with honorific titles and at wearing fine clothing. Like the students who first looked only for the balloon with their name on it, they put their own interests first, trampling on others in the process.

All of us, at one time or another, have met people who misused their authority. It could have been a teacher who disciplined us more harshly than we thought we deserved. It could have been managers at work who took our suggestions as a personal affront or who took credit for our work. It could also have been a priest or sister who was not as sensitive or available to us as we needed them to be. In all those times, we experienced first hand how crushing and humiliating it can feel to be mistreated by someone who has power over us.

Now, most of us here do not have official positions of power the way politicians, police officers and professors do. But that does not mean that we do not exercise authority over other people. If we are parents, then we certainly exercise a great deal of control over our children. Even children can have power over their younger siblings who look up to them. Many of us, whether we realize it or not, have some power over the people who want to spend time with us and be our friends. At work, we might have influence over co-workers who haven’t been on the job as long as we have and who want to learn from us.

How do we treat such people? Do we make time for them or do we turn our back on them? Are we dismissive when they ask us a question or do we patiently listen and instruct them? When they want to sit down with us at lunch are we gracious or do we ignore them? Are we so focused on our needs that we overlook others who could use a kind word or just a friendly smile? And, if we do have official positions of authority, do we enjoy lording it over others and using our power to gain privileges for ourselves rather than to really serve people?

Jesus tells us in today’s gospel, “The greatest among you must be the servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” The mark of a great person, then, is not how much power she has. It is not how much influence he has over others, how many titles he has before his name, or how many initials after it. It is not even how many followers she has on Twitter. Rather, the mark of a great person is her willingness to serve others. It is the ability to put her own interests aside to seek the good of her neighbor. Like the students in our story, it is the person who is willing to look for another person’s balloon, even if it means that his balloon will be lost or popped. Such people do not need to be praised by others. They do not seek recognition or rewards. Rather, they are content to wait upon the Lord to exalt them.

Such people are not only great but they are happy because they have discovered the secret of life - that we are never so powerful as when we serve others and we are never so happy as when we seek the happiness of others.