Authority

Homily for the 4^th Sunday in Ordinary Time
1 February 2015

       “You know, Father,” my friend said to me, “we’re supposed to be the clay, not God. Yet our society tries to mold God into whatever we think He’s supposed to be. We cannot mold God; God is to mold us for whatever it is He needs us to be. WE need to learn to become subordinate to the will of God in our lives.”

       These words to me by one of our fellow parishioners struck home to me as we were talking about not only the Gospel for this week, but, as is custom in conversation, the events of our lives.

       Saint Mark mentions not once, but twice, this authority of Jesus. The people were surprised by this “new teaching”, which was not like that of the Scribes. There was something truly different about this Jesus of Nazareth. This aura of authority was something both confusing and alluring to the people in the synagogue because they had never encountered anything like it before.

       However, two thousand years later, the authority of Jesus isn’t even awed or found alluring, but is rather seen as commonplace, bland and rejected.

       And this is so very true for us in Twenty-First Century America.

       As a Democratic Republic, our Revolution and Independence were birthed through a rejection of hierarchical authority. We live and breathe a government “of the people, by the people, for the people, [which] shall not perish from the earth.” We are a culture and society which are guided by the authority of the self.

       And this is probably why we as Catholics in America have a hard time submitting to the authority of the Church, which we believe is a direct extension of the authority of Christ, since she is established through Him and ultimately for Him.

       The most basic example of the authority of the Church that we as Catholics are called to follow are the Five Precepts of the Church. As the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us: The five precepts of the Church are meant to guarantee for the faithful the indispensable minimum in the spirit of prayer, the sacramental life, moral commitment and growth in love of God and neighbor.

       “The indispensable minimum” – Meaning that Christ and His Church are placing before us the minimum of what is being asked to enter into a relationship with our God. And still because of our stubbornness of heart, we refuse to even do the bear minimum because either, (1) we’re too lazy, or (2) we believe that we know better than God what’s good for us.

       As humans, we reject Divine Authority primarily for the latter reason of thinking that we know better than God. We, as individuals and as a society, often think, “He’s not living my life, so I have to make the decisions that I believe are best for me.” But, as Christians, we must always remember that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). Christ left us the Church and His authority within the Church so that we could cultivate the authentic relationship with God that we have been called to have.

       If we reject the authority of the Church, we are rejecting the authority of Christ. In these moments, we are doing what my friend said: We’re molding God into what we want Him to be, instead of allowing God to mold us into what He needs us to be. Only by submitting ourselves to the authority of God and His Church do we really begin to open ourselves to the endless possibilities of fulfilling God’s call for our lives.

       My brothers and sisters, if we fail to follow God’s authority in the “indispensable minimum” requirements of our Faith, then there’s no way we will ever be able to submit to His will when life itself presents to us obstacles to truly rely upon the grace of God. If we choose to reject the authority of Christ in small matters, it becomes easier for us to become those “cafeteria Catholics”, who pick and choose what it is from the wealth of the Church’s riches that we’re going to accept, either because we’re afraid to be challenged by the Church’s – and Christ’s! – authority in our lives, or because the pride in our hearts refuses to allow us to acknowledge that it’s ultimately God who’s in control of our lives.

       If you’ve forgotten the Five Precepts of the Catholic Church, here they are:

1.   You shall attend Mass on Sundays and on holy days of obligation and rest from servile labor.

2.   You shall confess your sins at least once a year.

3.   You shall receive the sacrament of the Eucharist at least during the Easter season.

4.   You shall observe the days of fasting and abstinence established by the Church.

5.   You shall help to provide for the needs of the Church.

The question now is: Can you and I submit to the authority of Christ and follow these five requirements to be His disciples? The question now is: Can you and I recognize that the authority of Christ and His Church is not meant here to limit the expressions of life and of faith, but, rather, exists to give us more freedom in the way that we approach our relationships with God and neighbor?

My brothers and sisters, we submit to the authority of Christ and His Church because, through our faith in Christ and in the way we believe He guides His Church, we have confidence that as we submit to His authority to the small things of this world, we are assured that His desire will rule the world and the life to come.

Ultimately, the authority of God is to be used to mold us into the disciples we have been called to be. We cannot allow ourselves to reject the authority of Jesus Christ just because we think we know better; we cannot allow ourselves to mold God into what we want Him to be. Learning to become subordinate to the authority of God is not just simply becoming a weakened person or someone who is led by blind faith. Rather, learning to become subordinate to the authority of God in our lives is to realize that we need to trust in Him more, and that He truly leads our lives to the fullness of His grace.

And so, we pray:

Father,
I abandon myself into your hands;
do with me what you will.
Whatever you may do, I thank you:
I am ready for all, I accept all.

Let only your will be done in me,
and in all your creatures -
I wish no more than this, O Lord.

Into your hands I commend my soul:
I offer it to you with all the love of my heart,
for I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself,
to surrender myself into your hands without reserve,
and with boundless confidence,
for you are my Father.

Amen.

(Prayer by Blessed Charles de Foucauld)

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Enjoy the journey . . .