To obey God, to obey God by obeying those who have been given His authority, this, this alone is to be little

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time. September 20th, 2009

In the readings and Gospel today, there is a simple message--unless we become like little children we will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. There is of course much more to this ideal than meets the eye. I think there are two points hidden in these words, and both have to do with authority. First, those in authority must be humble, pure children of God who use their authority for love of God and in service to His children. And secondly, the children of God must receive those whom God places in authority over them also with the humility of a child, in order to receive Jesus and imitate Jesus’ own obedience to His Father.
By this humble obedience to God’s commands, in imitation of Jesus, the Children of God can be truly happy and free, and begin to be led back to the God from Whom they came. So, the one who commands must do so for love of Christ and the one who obeys must do so for love of Christ as well. If one who has authority abuses it or if one under legitimate authority refuses to obey it, then damage is done to the love and unity within the family of God’s Children and their true freedom is lost.
In the first reading we hear of the “righteous one,” he who is virtuous and thus God’s son. In this reading, God’s “son” is actually any man who has been sent by God, with God’s own authority. This God given authority is to be used to call the world to repentance, to call those of the world to amend their lives and make their lives conform to, be obedience to, the ways of God the Father. They must do this so that they might become little, humble, pure and in that childlikeness, return back to the Father, becoming one of God’s beloved sons and daughters. In this reading however, we also hear of the disobedience of those children who refuse to listen to the one sent by God. They say, “if the virtuous man is God’s son, God will take his part and rescue him from the clutches of his enemies.”
Of course, hinted to in this first reading from Wisdom is the One who is fully the Son of God and who the world will put to death. This is God’s own Son, Jesus Christ, sent by the Father, with the Father’s own authority. Jesus shows us what true authority is; it is authority used in service of others according to the Will of God. This service entails a total life giving gift of self in love, in order to give to all of mankind the truth about God, as well as the truth about man Himself. And this truth is that man was made to love and serve God His Creator in faithful loving obedience.
Our second reading follows with a warning, a warning both to those who have authority and those who are under authority. Both must possess wisdom in order not to be ambitious or jealous with authority. In other words, those who have authority must use it in service and not for ambitious gain; those who do not have it must not be jealous, they must not fight to get authority so they can use it for ambitious gain. Prayer is needed, to obtain wisdom in order that either the haves or the haves not would not see authority as a way to indulge in one’s own selfish desires.
We look to Jesus for the proper understand of authority. Jesus used His authority in order to bring the little ones to God. This is an authority that Jesus received from His Father and which Jesus used in obedience to His Father’s Will. Jesus later shared this authority with his apostles, but with the strict instructions that they needed to use this authority only for love of Him, not out of personal gain or for worldly ambition and power. They are to use their God given authority to sow peace and to lead others to God. The Apostles and those to whom they would transmit their authority (that is to the bishops and priests), need to exercise this authority for love of God and for the salvation of souls. They are to use their God given authority only according to the Father’s will, in order to teach the truth needed for salvation, the truth all men need in order to freely choose the good, the beautiful and the true, and so return back to God the Father the Almighty. This message then, was not just for the Apostles of Christ, it is of course intended for each one of us today.
Today, there are those as well who are given authority by God and those who are called to obey them; both must be done for love of God the Father. The problem today however is this, that the very ideal of authority has itself become controversial. It has become controversial because the very ideal of God the Father Almighty implies that in His Almightiness, He must be obeyed.
God is Father, the Ultimate Father the source of all Fatherhood and hence the source of all authority. In this, we realize that true authority doesn’t come from us, but from God and so must be exercised in relation to this very fundamental truth. Our society today refuses to accept this truth in the name of freedom. Our culture as placed its ideal of freedom over and above its obedience to God. And so in today’s society God’s authority is seen as nothing but a threat to our “personal freedom.” We will even kill for “freedom” (abortion). We will do anything for freedom, even “kill” God if necessary.
But our society doesn’t want to completely do away with God and so it softens Him. Sure our society still speaks often of God, we use lots of “God language”, but it is only a “tamed” God that we speak of. It is a God made in our own image and likeness. And so our ideal of God becomes a means of enjoyment, such as seen in movies like “Bruce Almighty”. Sure, our society still likes the ideal of God, someone there when we need Him, so we keep Him around, but He can’t be a God who makes demands--He has no power to do that. And as a consequence, our society regulates God to its leisure time, free time, or to the weekends, if even that... Religion is no longer a way of life, the center of life; it can’t call us to discipleship; it is just one of many things vying for our time and not the most important one at that. And so to follow God in obedience to any kind of religious practice is becoming more foreign to our society, religious practice, Mass attendance is seen more as something to do when we have time, or we need something…
Were does all of this take us then as a society? Well if God as no authority, then either do those who He has place in authority over us. All authority becomes bad and only personal autonomy is good. No one has authority and thus no one needs to obey. In order to justify this position we are told, to just look at all the abuses of authority. Society tells us; because authority has been misused and abused it must be done away with. Of course, the problem with this mentality is that the abuse of authority does not negate the legitimacy of authority and our need for it, both as individuals and a society.
Let’s look at the family to understand all of this better. Our parents, especially our earthly fathers in our society can no longer hold authority over us. Fathers and their masculinity have become bad, it is shown as the source of sooo much abuse, the abuse of woman, the abuse of children and so the ideal of fatherhood must be done away with. More and more, our society is portraying fathers as pathetic figures such as Homer Simpson, pathetic figures which command no respect, much less having authority over us—Just look at the ads on T.V. to see if this isn’t truth. Fathers are now seen as the ones from whom we need to break away, ones who take away our freedom (especially to buy what we want) And the abuses of fatherhood and masculinity in the past are held up as the reason for the need of its removal.
If God has no authority and earthly Fathers have no authority, a authority which they derive from God, then spiritual fathers, priest and bishops, have no power either. Priest and bishops have no spiritual power, they have no authority to say you must do this or avoid that for your eternal salvation. Our society makes its point again by constantly holding up the abuse of authority by some priests and bishops, (making it seem like it is all priests and bishops). And while it is true some priest and bishops have abused their authority, their abuse of authority far negating their God given authority should instead teach us more about this authority and its legitimate use. True authority comes from it being use according the Will of the Father.
So the priest is only using true authority in as much as he speaks in accordance with the teaching of the Church and behaves in the manner in which the Church prescribes, that is where his authority rest. When he steps outside of these bounds, he abuses authority and as a consequence, he loses his individual authority. But this misuse of the spiritual authority of some unfaithful religious, doesn’t mean all religious authority must be done away with, as our society argues. This doesn’t make any more sense than all earthly fathers losing their authority over their children because some fathers have abuse their children.
What our Society really wants to show is that all religious people as well as all those who stand up for the truth, but especially priests and bishops, are unstable, insane, pathetic, intolerant, and so, a threat to our freedom and happiness. Society actually doesn’t mind priests who baptize babies and organize people, as long as they’re nice. But for him to use his religious authority, to use his true fatherhood in order to speak to society about its disobedience to the God’s Will, forget it because that is a threat to personal freedom…and who does he think he is anyway? It is the same, not only for priest, but for all who try to spread the truth of the Gospel in our day or in any day for that matter.
We can hear the words of those who are not little enough to receive it, those words echoed in the first reading today, “Let us lie in wait for the virtuous man, since he annoys us, and opposes our way of life, reproaches us for our breaches of the law. Let us see if what he says is true, let us observe what kind of end he himself will have.” Those with this attitude fail to realize that true freedom and true happiness is found, not only in loving obedience to God himself, but in loving obedience to all of those whom he has placed in authority over them and use their God given authority according to the Will of the Father.
Let us pray for all those who have been given the authority of Christ, especially bishops and priests, that they may use this legitimate authority correctly for love of Christ and in loving service to His people. And let us pray for all of us who are under authority, that we may see that our obedience to those who legitimately use their authority is actually showing our obedience to God Himself. Let us pray that we all see that true freedom and true happiness can only be found in obedience to God and obedience to all those whom He has place in authority over us and operate this authority in God’s will and love. To obey God, to obey God by obeying those who have been given His authority, this, this alone is to be little, to be true children of the Father and to recieve Jesus the One He sent to save us.