It refers to power, too, that subtle hunger we have, to control.
Some people have power, others are powerless.
We Americans cherish our democracy because it allows us to feel that we have power. We vote well, we used to vote, until we began to feel that maybe we don t have much power. The Catholic Church too is involved in a perennial civil war, a struggle for power among its own people. Sometimes it shows itself, as in our present generation when the laity are conscious of their need for power in the Church, and sometimes it is hidden, as in the last generation when it was okay for the priest or the bishop or the pope to give the orders, and everyone obeyed. Grumbling was considered close to heresy.