NOT ONE OF THE 100

Time magazines latest issue, a double one at that, featured, at least according to the staff at Time, the 100 most influential people in the world. It had five covers: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, journalist Jorge Ramos, musician Kanye West, ballerina Misty Copeland, and actor Bradley Cooper. I, of course, was not one of those 100, nor do I have the chutzpah to even think I could or should be.

Furthermore, no one I know personally would be considered to be mentioned even be listed as a footnote, myself included. What I found interesting and troubling is that almost half of the 100 were in the entertainment business. Placing Kim Kardashian alongside Pope Francis or Tim McGraw alongside President Obama, or at least in the same list of 100, leaves me scratching my head, trying to understand, asking “Are you serious?”

I guess they are. The double-issue is a testament to their seriousness. There’s something wrong here. If Kim Kardashian is one of the 100, what does that say about our values or about whom we hold in high regard? Is it any wonder we have lost so much respect for the President and the presidency or for anyone in authority for that matter? That’s the bad news.

The good news is that most of us, Time’s editors notwithstanding, could care less about this list. In our own lives we have our own 100 most influential people. Actually, our list is less than half that number, if that. We all have people we hold up and admire, people who would never make Time’s or anyone else’s list of influential people. Nor would they care. Nor would we.

What they and we do care about is our relationships one with the other, with the support we give one to the other, with the love we share one with the other. Not one person among those 100 nor all of them together could come close to anyone on our personal list of influential people. What we may fail to do, too often, is give thanks for them and give them personal thanks.

What we also fail to remember is that we are on the list of those many others who are in our lives, that we are one of those who are most influential in their lives. What we also forget is that in and through our baptism we are called to be such, to influence others how to live out their faith simply by the way we live out our faith. Neither the world nor Time will take note of that, but those who matter to us will, and that is all that matters.

I suspect some of those on Time’s will downplay that honor. Those are the ones who understand the responsibility that has been given to them because of the gifts they possess, God-given gifts. They understand, whether admitted or not, that they are to use those gifts to the best of their ability so that others may benefit from them. They have. That is why they are on the list.

So with us. Others honor and respect us and we honor and respect others because we and they have come to understand that the gifts we have been given are to be used not for our honor and glory but to serve others and in doing so give honor and glory to God.