4th Sunday of Ordinary Time, B January 31, 2021
Fr. Albert St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette
Authority. If we’re going to proclaim the gospel and evangelize, we will have to deal with this concept. In many cases, the reason a person remains aloof from the Catholic Church is that they don’t like the Church’s claim to authority. Our culture is already riddled with suspicion, with just about every expert being challenged because of bias, media, and politics. People protest: Tell me what to do? Act like you’re infallible? Claiming to be the only ones who’ve got it all right?
And yet, in an increasingly unstable world, it is precisely authority that can provide the peace so many are looking for. When everything seems uncertain, we get disoriented and are vulnerable to a sense of meaninglessness. Saints throughout history, however, can testify that the solidity of the Church’s teaching is a comfort, a light in the darkness of a broken world. Still, how do I know that this version of the gospel is the right one? Authority. Unlike the scribes with their opinions, Jesus Christ, and the Church he established, offers doctrine with the same certainty we have for basic facts like the color of the sky or the existence of gravity. That certainty is based on authority from God himself.
The people in this Gospel scene and had the advantage of seeing Jesus’ authority in person, hearing it in his voice and witnessing it in miracles like this exorcism. For us who live today, the authority of the Church, which comes from Jesus himself, is reflected in three ways: the consistency of her teaching, the holiness of the saints she produces, and her continuing spiritual power.
In evangelizing others, we can point to the fact that Church doctrine doesn’t change as evidence that it is more than mere personal opinion. In contrast with worldly and even scientific opinion that changes dramatically even in a single lifetime, this can be powerful if well presented. The tricky part, of course, is that we need to know those teachings well enough ourselves.
If we’re honest, it often looks like the Church does change her teaching. Part of the problem is that not every apparent teaching is a doctrine. A doctrine is a particular use of authority to claim something is true and can never change. How we celebrate Mass changes, but the teaching that the Eucharist is really Christ’s body and blood does not change. The Church does teach that doctrine can develop over time, but that is a similar thing to the way a baby develops into a person. Many things change about appearance and behavior, but they are the same unique person the whole time. It doesn’t help that our people, even our own priests and bishops, simply don’t follow certain doctrines. It doesn’t change the teaching, but it does undermine the appearance of authority.
Someone who has studied history might say we’ve changed our teaching on things like usury or the death penalty. Because they’re moral teachings, they are a little complicated. There is the heart of the teaching and then there is the application in a constantly changing world.
It’s not my aim to make my homily about the death penalty or usury, so please speak with me if you want to know more. I will say this much: both of those teachings look like a change because the Church has adjusted her application of the teaching to changing circumstances. Usury is still a sin. The question is what qualifies as usury? The Death Penalty is not considered intrinsically evil – we aren’t saying it was always sinful in the past – we’re only saying that it is best to universally oppose it in these current circumstances. A quick look at a lot of other teachings show that we do not budge no matter how much pressure we get. We still hold our ground on same-sex attraction, marriage, contraception, and gender despite some priests and bishops trying to act like we don’t. We will always say Jesus is God and Man, that there is a Trinity, and that we will one day rise from the dead.
If you know your faith well, you can use the consistency of Church teaching as proof of authority. The basic idea is that if God himself told us the truth, then that truth shouldn’t change. If you want to evangelize well, you’ll need to know the faith well enough to defend this idea and give examples depending on the objections you might encounter.
The other proof of authority is holiness. If the Church has the truth and if someone follows that truth, it should make them holy, right? Well, the lives of the saints are an authoritative testimony that the truth works. It’s not to say saints never make mistakes or don’t have weaknesses, but that following the truth really does make them holy. St. John Paul II was able to stare down dictators and literally make their knees shake in part because of his holiness, born from his fidelity to Church teaching. Mother Teresa too, was seen as a world-wide authority on love and she was wholly faithful to Church teaching. If we want to have any authority in our evangelization, we ourselves must strive to be holy.
Finally, there are the sacraments and other spiritual powers. The Eucharist can only come from the authority of a priest and several visible miracles back up our claim that it is a daily invisible miracle. Exorcisms still do take place, both major and minor ones. Sometimes, people call us because of weird things in their home. A little investigation often reveals they’ve fallen away or given into this or that sinful way of life. Confession, Mass, and a blessing of the house often drives out any evil spirits that may be there.
The devil is real. He is also smarter and more powerful than we are. But not so with Jesus Christ and his church. The authority of the Church is not a leash to control us, but a sword and shield against the sin and damnation Satan wants to inflict upon us. Take refuge in that authority by learning your faith and relying on the sacraments. Find encouragement from the authority that made others into saints and can do the same for you. And then, go out with confidence in this authority to proclaim the gospel, the good news that God is real, he is trustworthy, he is powerful, and he really does use that power to lead us to the truth and holiness. His authority sets us free from the devil and death itself, why wouldn’t we want to share that with others?