The Gospel for November 29, 2004
Luke 20:1-8
Now it happened that one day while he was teaching the people in the Temple and proclaiming the good news, the chief priests and the scribes came up, together with the elders, and spoke to him. ‘Tell us,’ they said, ‘what authority have you for acting like this? Or who gives you this authority?’ In reply he said to them, ‘And I will ask you a question, just one. Tell me: John’s baptism: what was its origin, heavenly or human?’ And they debated this way among themselves, ‘If we say heavenly, he will retort, “Why did you refuse to believe him?”; and if we say human, the whole people will stone us, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.’ So their reply was that they did not know where it came from. And Jesus said to them, ‘Nor will I tell you my authority for acting like this.’ -- The New Jerusalem Bible. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1995, c1985
A Study
I was reminded while researching this text that Jesus doesn't only confounds the religious hierarchy with his question about John. He also leads them to the easily-crossed bridge that if John was a valid prophet, then what John said about Jesus had to be true, and that Jesus had to be the Messiah.
A Reflection
We are often confronted with people who have taken on authority to which they have no claim. It's a form of anti-humility. People who control queues at public places sometimes give themselves elevated places in the scheme of things, for example.
And the opposite also is true. Being from the Washington area, I often see men and women who have wielded enormous power as politicians, now returned to the general population as members of the crowd, and almost to the individual, each has resumed a life as a model of good citizenship, civility, and humility.
What makes the difference?
What makes Teresa of Calcutta willing to kneel in the gutter with a tuberculosis-ridden beggar while the fellow in charge of the line at the movies mumbles and then won't repeat what he said to someone who's hard of hearing?
Where does each get the authority to do what he does the way he does it? We can guess that the rude fellow has little real little authority, while the others get theirs from the same place as Jesus. We are commanded to do justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly. That authority is not questionable.
Where do I get the authority to live, to act, to speak as a child of God?
A Collect
Gracious Father, we pray for thy holy Catholic Church. Fill it with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in any thing it is amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake of Jesus Christ thy Son our Savior. Amen.
10:09:59 PM 
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