Take a seat

I had the privilege to hear a little history lesson on the Cathedral at a Landings session and we learnt that for a Church to be elevated to “Cathedral” status, it literally needs to contain a physical chair which is the Bishop’s seat, and no one else can take that seat.

This is reminiscent of the seat of St Peter’s, as it symbolises the authority handed down and apparently is also how the word “chairman” came about.

The presenter also shared about the seating arrangement of the Last Supper and how Peter actually had the lowest seat of honour as host / servant and probably had to help out with the logistics of the meal whilst Judas and John had the “VIP” seats next to Jesus.

And very timely, this week’s Gospel tells us to take the seat of the lower honour so that we may not be embarrassed if someone more worthy comes along. It’s a lesson in humility and we are reminded about humility and not a false one where the world exalts. We see this in politics / industry where leaders boasts about their humble beginnings etc to elicit a sense of being “one” with the people.

The true challenge is for us to do everything we do with love. Whether we get recognised / affirmed is inconsequential. Hard to practise but its the gold standard of humility.

Let’s win this race and go for gold!