Nobody is Better than Anybody

NEW YORK (AP) — Joe Biden doesn't kiss up to anyone — whether a queen or a pope.

The vice president told a gathering of Irish-Americans in New York City on Thursday that as a young U.S. senator he was to meet the queen of England.

He remembers getting a call from his mother, who told him not to kiss the queen's ring.

Years later, when he was to meet Pope John Paul II, Biden says his mother told him not to kiss the pope's ring.

Biden, a Roman Catholic descended from struggling Irish immigrants, says his dad said it was "all about dignity."

Biden says his mother told him that no one is "better" than him. And while Biden should treat everyone with respect, his mother said her son should also "demand respect.'"

Is this an issue about kissing someone's ring? Now, truthfully, as a Catholic myself I always worried about having to kiss a bishop's ring not because I thought I was better than he but I thought of receiving germs from someone else who had previously kissed the bishop's ring.

To me, whether or not I like the idea of kissing a person's ring because of germs, the real purpose of kissing a bishop's or a Queen's or a Pope's ring is not a matter of, by so doing, recognizing the ring holder as a person better than the one kissing the ring; the kissing of the ring is really like many other ways in which one human being recognizes the station of a person.

What are some other ways people recognize the position or stature or status of a person rather than the person him or herself?

In the old days, prior perhaps to the two great world wars, it was common practice in Europe for a man to show respect for a woman because she was a woman by kissing her hand. To some extent this was probably done in American society as well.

When I was stationed in Germany back in the 50's it was quite common for a woman to extend her hand, not to be kissed, but to be grasped in a handshake. Back in the States at the same time an American woman would never extend her hand to be grasped in a handshake; well, almost never. I shall always remember the time I extended my hand to the wife of a person to whom I was talking in Honolulu only to receive from this woman a glare that extended from my feet up to my head and back down again. Having recently returned from Europe where a man extending his hand to a woman for a handshake of friendship was almost universally accepted, I felt as though I was measured by this woman to be less than a worthwhile person.

Holding a door for a woman, paying for a lady's lunch bill, all manner of ways to express the honor to be given a woman not because she is "better" but because God has created woman as the one whose actions are intended to make the world a better place, these customs have unfortunately been largely done away with by our "everybody's equal" society.

All the ways of showing respect for others are ways of honoring God who has given to some people authority in our society, to some leadership, to others great gifts and honor.  It is not a matter of who's "better" that we honor others through acts of humility like kissing rings, kissing hands, holding doors, saluting higher ranks, etc;  It is rather a way of acknowledging and honoring God's presence and action in our lives.