I’m More Important Than You!

One day I was shopping at a local drug store which was in walking distance from where I lived. There were a few things I wanted to buy which they had on sale. I did not have a basket to carry them, so I held them all in my hands. Among what I was buying was a soda twelve-pack.

The store was more than a little busy. A line was forming in front, with several of us waiting patiently, holding our items. The store itself had a prime location in the city, being a couple blocks away from a DC Metro stop, which made it normal for people to go to the store as a quick stop going to work or coming home, making it often a busy store.

On this day, however, it was busier than normal. After waiting several minutes, as four or five people before me took their turn, I was at the front of the line.  Suddenly a man picked up a newspaper, and rushed to the cash register ahead of me, without any care or concern that there was a line there, nor that I was on my way to the cashier.

I spoke up. My arms were getting tired of holding the cans.  I told him to get in line, that many of us were waiting patiently and what he did was just outright rude

“It’s just a paper,” he said. Clearly, he thought just buying a paper meant he could skip the line.

“So what?” I responded.

There was a little more exchange of words. I do not remember exactly what was said, but I was holding my ground. Then he gave his ultimate excuse.

“I’m more important than you.”

That’s right. He thought he was above everyone else in line. He did not know who any of us were, but he thought he had the right of way, that he was a very important person, and basic common decency was beyond him.

Initially, his words caused some prideful thoughts come into my head as a response. I did not speak them back to him. He was able to pay for his paper and go, confirming in his head how great he was and how everyone else was beneath him. Maybe he was late for a meeting. I do not know.

The sad part is how my thoughts wanted me to respond to him with a sense of pride. When pushed by people like him, we begin to become like them, to think highly of ourselves, that they failed to notice how great and important we are or will likely become. We never know who or what others around us are doing, but we know ourselves, and what we do. We can easily see the value of our accomplishments, as well as our extended goals in life, thinking through them all, we are very important and so others should give way to us, to give us preference, even above common decency.

We might not show our haughtiness to others in the way the man did to me at the store, but likely, somewhere in our lives, our treatment of others begins to suffer as a result of our pride, and the arrogance it promotes.

If that is not the case for you, I can say to you, good job, you have achieved humility which is worthy of respect, now go and continue serving others through such humility, making sure you do not let it get the best of you and you begin to suffer the same vainglory most of us experience.

For the rest of us, we must remember those who are the greatest among us, those who are the most important among us, are those who serve others the best. The first shall be last, and the greatest among us will be those who follow the example of Christ and become the servant of all. The most important people will not think highly of themselves, nor will they think what they do makes them special. Rather they will see the goodness in all, indeed, the greatness which is found in all, and serve others with humility and respect because of that greatness they see in the other. That is exactly what makes someone great – that through their humility they can see and serve the greatness of the other. Such greatness of spirit, such humble servitude, is special, and those who follow it are those who are really important, for they are the ones who stand with the rest of us in solidarity with our weakness and lift us up so we can all be great.

We must, therefore, seek to humble ourselves. If we are prone to think too greatly of ourselves, our pride will lead to our fall. We will either begin to think, or actually think, others are there to serve us at our whim instead of being persons with a dignity all their own. We will think we deserve special treatment, because of what we think we have made for ourselves, while we will also think less of those who are not like us, who have not supposedly made themselves to be important, that they deserve anything which happens to them. We must not go this route. If we are prone to vain thoughts, then the prudential wisdom of Salvian is for us:

Therefore, flee from this evil; flee from adulation waiting in ambush for you; flee from obsequiousness injurious to you; flee those who surround you and who are there to deceive you. Flatteries are services which cut your throat; there are services which drag you to death. Flee from the blandishments of people such as these! Flee from their assiduity. They are your hangmen and tormentors who truly surround you in the present life, but kill you in the next world. [1]

Truly, we must remember we will be judged by how we treat the least of the people, the poor, the outcast, the stranger, the beggar; that is anyone who society says is unimportant. For the least in the kingdom of God remains greater than the man or woman who thinks they are the most important person in the world. The world is impermanent, and whatever is gained of it and for it will not last. Earthly nations come and go, as do those who believe themselves deserving special privileges in the world. It is all in flux and cannot be held indefinitely, so that, come death, it will all be gone, and if someone has not attained something greater, something eternal, their real poverty and insignificance will be made clear to all.

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[1] Salvian, “The Four Books to the Church” in Salvian the Presbyter. trans. Jeremiah F. O’Sullivan, PhD (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1962), 353.

 

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