Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time, 2021

 Lectionary: 71

All were amazed and asked one another, “What is this? A new teaching with authority."

Raised in the Protestant tradition of 19th century Anglican England, Saint John Henry Newman believed that everyone should read the Bible and find guidance for their life. Ever since the printing press with movable type had made the Bible available, millions read the scriptures and interpreted God’s word for themselves. But the result was not harmony. Protestantism had splintered into a thousand sects. Despite the singularity of the text, everyone read a different book.

Seeing that catastrophe, Newman taught that we must have human authorities if we would know God’s will for us. His argument began first with the obvious authority of God's word as we hear in today’s gospel:

“The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.”

Jesus, the Word made Flesh, knew the Mind of God. His every utterance sounded with the resonance of incomprehensible mystery and creating energy.

Secondly: after his death and resurrection and ascension into heaven, Jesus had to bestow that authority upon the Church, for if he took his authority with him no one could know what the Word of God says. It’s like the mystery of time: If there is only one clock in a room, everyone knows what time it is. If there are two clocks in the room, no one knows the time! Likewise, the Word of God must be interpreted with a single authority or it says nothing.

Every generation, adapting to its own time and the changes that occur on this dynamic planet, must interpret the Word of God, but what assurance do they have that their reading is true? Is our understanding of Jesus faithful to him, and to those who have gone ahead of us, especially the martyrs? Or are we imposing an alien meaning on a corrupted text? Without divine guidance, people and their traditions must veer off course like rudderless boats. 

When people disagree, blue is green, and green is red. And truth is relative. Sadly, we've seen this confusion invade American politics as people disavow any allegiance to Truth and simply angle for power. The Holy Spirit, given by the Father and the Son, must remain with the Church and assure her teaching. Without the authority of the Holy Spirit who speaks the Truth to us, we're lost. 

(I have heard some creationists argue that God placed millions of fossils in the earth to fool the clever people who believe they have found evidence which contradicts the account in Genesis. In other words, God intentionally deceives people. But our Catholic tradition has assured us since time immemorial, our God does not and will never lie to us.)

The Church, being human, is fractious. Newman insisted in his Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent, we must have a single person with authority to teach, guide, and govern. He recalled how that authority was revealed through a fascinating and complex historical process. If the seeds of papal authority are found in scriptural references to Saint Peter, its flourishing appeared after several centuries, especially at the Council of Chalcedon in 449. (One would have to enjoy making sausage to study the whole story deeply.)

Let me conclude this brief reflection with a wonderful citation from the writings of 2nd century Saint Ignatius of Antioch. Without clear and effective authority neither a choir nor a symphony nor a church can exist:

But since love will not allow me to be silent about you, I am taking the opportunity to urge you to be united in conformity with the mind of God. For Jesus Christ, our life, without whom we cannot live, is the mind of the Father, just as the bishops, appointed over the whole earth, are in conformity with the mind of Jesus Christ.

It is fitting, therefore, that you should be in agreement with the mind of the bishop as in fact you are. Your excellent presbyters, who are a credit to God, are as suited to the bishop as strings to a harp. So in your harmony of mind and heart the song you sing is Jesus Christ. Every one of you should form a choir, so that, in harmony of sound through harmony of hearts, and in unity taking the note from God, you may sing with one voice through Jesus Christ to the Father. If you do this, he will listen to you and see from your good works that you are members of his Son. It is then an advantage to you to live in perfect unity, so that at all times you may share in God. (From St Ignatius of Antioch's letter to the Ephesians. He died in the early 2nd century, long before the papacy appeared as the first among equals. )