Memorial of Saint Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church

Lectionary: 432

He taught them on the sabbath,
and they were astonished at his teaching
because he spoke with authority....
They were all amazed and said to one another,
"What is there about his word?
For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits,
and they come out."

While on sabbatical several years ago, I took an elective course on the history of the pentecostal movements in the United States. It concerned the Methodists of the 18th century, the holiness churches of the 19th, and the pentecostalism of the twentieth. I was one of the few Catholics in the room, perhaps the only one, and the course was taught without a Roman Catholic perspective. 

But I became convinced that the entire Protestant movement concerns the question of authority among God's people. Who should lead the Church? How are its leaders chosen, and how are they organized? What authority do they have, and how long should they have it? Is their authority temporary or permanent? And, do we need authority at all? Are there no methods to facilitate everyone's equal voice so that God will be the only leader? 

And finally, beneath all those questions that Christians must address, there is the most fundamental question, "Should anyone -- human or divine -- have authority over me? Don't I have sovereignty over my body; and over my thoughts, attitudes, words, and deeds?" Granted that infants and children need adult guardians, are they not freed from all authority upon attaining their majority? 

American mythology celebrates the isolated human being who needs no one, depends on no one, and answers to no one. They -- to use the now-correct term -- is a lone wolf, an unnamed hero without family or friends ("Who was that masked man?"). They join no committee, company, or organization; and represent a law unto themselves. In mythology, they're usually represented as heroic, principled, and virtuous; but they can be principled and diabolical, like Cormac McCarthy's Anton Chigurh. I have met a few who said they lived by that code, but I can't say I knew them. They don't want to be known. 

The authority of the Church begins with the infallible authority of God, which also believes that God who is Truth cannot lie:

God is not a human being who speaks falsely,

nor a mortal, who feels regret. (Number 23:19) 

And:

...when God wanted to give the heirs of his promise an even clearer demonstration of the immutability of his purpose, he intervened with an oath, so that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged to hold fast to the hope that lies before us. (Hebrews 6:18]

When the Lord preached in the synagogue at Nazareth, his family and neighbors encountered his divine authority and were astonished by it. They were accustomed to their own religious leaders who not only belonged to a fellowship of scholars and lawyers, but were also constrained by Roman rule, religious traditions, and human respect. Whenever they spoke they qualified their teachings as opinions subject to nuancing, alteration, further explanation, backpedaling and recanting. Even when they quoted God's law they were translating from the original Hebrew into the Aramaic of their neighbors. 

Everyone who dares to assume authority over others must forget for the moment that their authority will pass sooner or later. Their strength will diminish, their opinions will be outdated, their offices will be taken from them, and finally they will die. Only those who have no fear of death, or ignore its reality, can speak fearlessly. 

Jesus knew he would die like any man. But he also knew God's authority; he alone could say, "the Father and I are one." In today's gospel we hear the astonishment of the Nazarites as they encounter Jesus's authority to teach and to heal. In Luke 5, we will hear of his authority to forgive sins; an authority which seems more than his fellows can endure! 

The wisdom of God, empowered by the Holy Spirit, teaches us to accept the authority God gives to human beings, and to honor hierarchical systems. That wisdom comes naturally, through experience and common sense, as we trust teachers, supervisors, scholars, police, and elected officials. And it comes supernaturally through faith. It comes with the willingness to honor anointed ministers of the Church, and even to accept their authority to forgive sins. It comes with the willingness to obey the Lord and the vessels of clay he has set over us.