The Disaster of Democracy

Seeing how the minority see through the eyes of faith

11/18/2024

LK 18:35-43 As Jesus approached Jericho a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging, and hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what was happening. They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” He shouted, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!” The people walking in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent, but he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me!” Then Jesus stopped and ordered that he be brought to him; and when he came near, Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” He replied, “Lord, please let me see.” Jesus told him, “Have sight; your faith has saved you.” He immediately received his sight and followed him, giving glory to God. When they saw this, all the people gave praise to God.

I have never been a fan of going with the crowd, or doing whatever the majority of my friends were doing. In fact, I think that was one major factor in my decision to pursue the priesthood. No one else was doing it! And when I was ordained back in 1996, I was the only one ordained that year. I got all the glory!

I sometimes wonder if I would have been as excited about going into seminary today when we have an abundance of young men discerning the call. I know it sounds counter-intuitive, and maybe even counter-cultural here in the U.S. where the majority picks the president, but I have always harbored a healthy suspicion of the majority report, and prefer to throw my lot in with the minority.

In the gospel today something similar occurs. The crowd does not see while the one blind man can see. When a blind man hears Jesus is passing by he begins to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!” How did the crowd (the majority) react to the blind man’s prayer? We read: “The people walking in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent.”

Can you catch the irony of this scene? The blind man is the only one who sees clearly who Jesus is, while the crowd with supposedly 20/20 vision is completely blind to our Lord’s true identity. The minority report got it right, not the majority report.

I’ll never forget how Archbishop Fulton Sheen argued that God always works through the minority and never the majority. And he gave two stunning examples. First, in Number 13, Moses sends 12 scouts to do a reconnaissance mission into the Promised Land to get the lay of the land.

10 scouts return with a very discouraging report, saying the Philistines are like giants and would crush the Israelites. But 2 scouts – Joshua and Caleb – assure the people that with God on their side they can conquer the land easily. The majority report was mistaken and the minority report was spot on.

Sheen’s second example was from 1968. Pope Paul VI had set up a commission of 12 cardinals to examine the question of contraception. You might remember the 60’s was the time of the sexual revolution, sparked in no small part by the dawn of the contraceptive pill. 10 of the cardinals said that in exceptional cases contraception would be morally licit. But 2 cardinals disagreed and insisted that contraception was immoral in all circumstances.

Pope Saint Paul VI went with the minority report and issues his landmark papal encyclical called “Humanae Vitae” (On Human Life) teaching that Catholics, indeed anyone, who uses contraception commits a morally illicit act. Incidentally, one of the archbishops who helped on that commission was Karol Woytila from Poland, who later became Pope St. John Paul II. I will give you one guess which way he voted.

And even if a majority of Catholics today regularly use contraceptives, that does not mean it is morally acceptable. In my reckoning, that is exactly what we should expect, namely, the majority more often gets it wrong than right. The Church would be a disaster if she were a democracy.

Have you ever heard of the Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule? It is named for Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian sociologist and economist. Put simply, in large crowds of people, the Pareto principle states that 20% of the people will accomplish 80% of the work. Just look at our parish. At Mass on any given Sunday roughly 20-30% of our registered parishioners come to Mass, while almost 80% stay home.

On the financial side, about 20% of the parishioners give 80% of all the donations that we receive. Once again, like in the gospel about the blind man, it is the minority who see with eyes of faith who Jesus is and what it entails to follow him. The majority is simply stumbling along in the dark. Or as Jesus predicted in Mt 15:14, “If a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall in the ditch.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!