BY WHAT AUTHORITY?

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Monday in the 3^rd Week of Advent  is, “By What Authority?”

It’s a question that appears in today’s gospel: Matthew 21:23-27. 

In Advent these readings don’t flow from one day to the next, so it would be important to know what has just happened right before today’s gospel - to trigger the question. Jesus just went into the temple in Jerusalem and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves.

Next - as we heard in today’s gospel - the priests and the elders seeing Jesus doing this asked, the obvious, “By what authority are you doing these things?”

What I wonder about is why this reading is picked for Advent.

After that it got me thinking about the question of authority.

A few questions for you are: Is the question of authority something you think about from time to time? Are you interested in hearing a few words about authority right now? You’re sort of stuck - because I’m at the microphone - but you can tune a speaker out - if you’re somewhere else. Don’t we all do that from time to time?

My task as priest is to come into this temple and at this time after the readings to say a few words on the readings - that is, to preach a homily.

That’s a long introduction - but I hope it gives the reason why I am about to preach a homily entitled, “By What Authority?”

A SCARY QUESTION

To me that’s a scary question.

It’s also a good question at times.

I can’t just come up here to the pulpit and say anything. I have to be responsible. I can’t just overturn tables

So by what authority do I say what I say?

At present, in our Catholic Church the basic rule and regulation is this: ordinarily, the person up here preaching should be a deacon or a priest. Behind that would be education and testing, etc. and then ordination. Moreover, the priest and deacon have to give a promise of fidelity to Church teachings.

So I am responsible for what I say and I have to consider what I am saying.

That doesn’t mean I won’t make mistakes.

There are jokes about a preacher being allowed to make 5 heresies in every homily.

I’ve even heard that from bishops. Now that’s an argument from authority.

I like that joke or comment - because what we say up here has to be kosher and well thought out. And I feel at times I don’t have enough time to look at every implication in what I am saying.

Moreover, I am well aware that I have lots of questions about lots of things in the scriptures - and in theology.  I am called to keep studying, growing, learning, and developing. That is part of the vocation of a rabbi, a deacon and a priest. If I have it right, it entails being a life time student.

I am also aware that it is valuable to have various personalities preaching - and teaching - and speaking from the pulpit - so that you too are helped in growing with the Sacred Scriptures. I assume that would be part of the background of those who want to hear the voice of women from the pulpit as well.

I am also aware that you as listener - also have an obligation to receive the word according to your personality - and your education - and your development and growth and your faith.

I like to say to people: “Please be thinking Catholics - thinking Christians.”

And folks are thinking. I’ve hit wrong buttons at times. I’ve hit confusing buttons at times. And at times people let me know.

So I know from experience that people sit in church listening to a homily and consciously and unconsciously inwardly think and say to themselves the very same question we heard in today’s gospel, “By what authority are you saying these things?”

I also know people are inwardly saying at times, “I don’t agree with you!” Or “I doubt that.” Or, “I have think about that.”  Or “I have to read up about that.” Or “I want to ask for a second opinion.”

So as I said: this is scary stuff.

ST. THOMAS AQUINAS

I am fond of a saying of St. Thomas Aquinas - when he said that authority is the weakest of arguments.

Those who like St. Thomas Aquinas like to say: “Notice that in itself that is an argument from authority.”

Authorities on St. Thomas Aquinas like to add that St. Thomas’ full statement was: “Authority is the weakest of arguments according to Boethius.” 

Boethius was a 6^th Century AD public official and philosopher who wrote a document entitled, “Consolation of Philosophy” - which had a great impact into the Middle Ages.

As I studied St. Thomas Aquinas on the authority question,  I hear him saying that sometimes arguments from authority are good - but often there are better arguments. For example he said that in his various arguments for the proof of God’s existence.

Don’t we do the same thing? A kid starts to play with matches or wants to touch the stove or go out with so and so.  A parent might yell with authority: “No! Don’t go there!”  Later on the kid will know - not from authority - but from experience - my mom and dad were right. “It’s not smart to play with fire.”

THE BIBLE: BY WHOSE AUTHORITY DO YOU INTERPRET IT?

As you know the big issue when it comes to the Bible is how do you interpret it?

By whose authority do you say what you say about a particular passage of the Bible?

This used to be a big Catholic-Protestant flash point.

Times have changed. Now it’s often a Fundamentalist vs. Various Literary Forms “fight”. Better labels could be found or used - but I only have so much time. This is not a lecture, but I am using my time in working on this homily - to pull together some of my understandings and where I want to further go and grow.

As you well know,  we preachers not only preach on the Bible - but reach for other books on our shelves when it comes to studying a Bible text - and to come up with a homily. So I reach for several commentaries on the Bible as well as dictionaries of the Bible - as well as books of sermons and reflections by people like Barbara Brown Taylor,  William Barclay, Paul Tillich, John Shea, Helmut Thielicke, Frederick Buechner, Austin Farrer, Joseph Donders, Denis McBride, to name just a few.

For me, the question is no longer Catholic-Protestant reflections on the Bible - but the reflection of this particular person I’m reading on a Biblical text.

As a Catholic - I rely on our on Tradition and Theology - Catechisms and Church Documents - the Fathers of the Church - and lots of theology books by people like Karl Rahner and Bernard Haring and so many others. They are rooted in the Bible and our Tradition and our History. So I am rooted in the Bible - post-college 4 years of theology and Biblical Studies  in the seminary - plus studies for two more master’s degrees in theology that I got after I was ordained and years after our seminary training years.

TODAY’S FIRST READING

Now, let me take today’s first reading from the Book of Numbers [24:2-7, 15, 17a] and make a few comments. It  gives some utterances from Balaam - a character in the Bible. He is a seer - that is one who sees what others don’t see. A seer is one who has visions and makes pronouncements from God about them.

I assume Baalam is mentioned in today’s first Advent reading  because one of his pronouncements was about the Star of Jacob.

We can ask,  “By what authority Balaam are you making your pronouncements?”

We can also ask how true is his story - and his comments?

Here is where I go to authorities - so called, “Biblical Scholars.”

That’s an area of the authority - big time authority - these so called, “Biblical Scholars”.  They have to do a lot of study in various fields to get their doctorates.

In his Biblical Dictionary, John L. McKenzie notes the following about Balaam with a comment by an authority named, William Albright, “Albright has argued from the language and the grammatical and syntactical characteristics of the poems that they are as ancient as the 12^th or the 11^th century, the period to which Balaam belongs in tradition. The same writer has shown that the ‘Star of Jacob’ [Numbers 24:17] should actually be translated, ‘When the stars of Jacob prevail.”

Reading that I assume that the section of Numbers we heard today at this Mass has traditions and strains and stories that go way, way back.  I was taught that those traditions came down in spoken form first - so they would change and become reformed in each situation to help people in each situation to be better people or follow such and such a religious practice or what have you.

Take the example, when it comes to Balaam, of his famous talking ass. It’s mentioned right there in the Book of Numbers - Chapter 22 - two chapters before today’s first reading. 

Now I don’t believe in talking donkeys - but I know that also is one of those pulpit jokes - about preachers - from time to time.

I also assume that the story was preserved because it’s funny, memorable, and could be used by a speaker or a preacher in cute ways.

Did the donkey talk? Did the snake talk in Genesis?

I was trained in Scripture in a Catholic seminary - so I got what was the current teaching between 1962-1966. I have also read a lot since.

Catholic teaching on the Bible has changed in the past 200 years - and its official pronouncements right now are that that the Bible contains lots of various types of literature. Fundamentalist Biblical thinkers think otherwise - so right there a thinking Catholic might have a dilemma - and a question: “Whom can I believe?”

So I was taught that we have in the Bible lots of different types of literature. And in lots of literature, for example, Aesop’s Fables, animals talk and the fables teach a people lots of good stuff. 

Another type of literature is exact science literature. We hope a doctor, an engineer, a physicist, any science reader - will get the best information - to make the best decisions for his field.  If the facts in a science book are proved to be untrue, improve the text - till we get the facts as correct as possible. Obviously.

If you read the Bible you are often reading it in light of the science at the time it was spoken and written. If you look up in the sky any bright day, it looks like the sun is moving across the sky. In the Bible it’s described as doing just that - like a chariot. When Galileo said we are the one going around the sun, the Catholic Church and many others knew he was wrong.

Surprise - sunrises and sunsets can be deceiving…. if one is self centered - that everything revolves around our world.

Appearances can be tricky. I was once at a window seat in a restaurant in Algiers - right on the Mississippi River on the other side of New Orleans. At one point in our meal, I thought our table was moving. A gigantic tanker went right by our window. Appearances can be deceiving.

Experience - checking things out - good science - discovery - testing - are all important when it comes to understanding our realities. There was a rift between Church and Life - when the Church didn’t advance with the Enlightenment. I remember my first assignment as a priest. An older priest said what was laughed at when we studied the Bible. He said the world was 6000 years old - that was what he was taught. I said that they have stones that are 4 to 6 billion years old.  He said: “Well God made them old.”

At that I became quiet - realizing - we in two different worlds.

CONCLUSION

I didn’t know it then, but I learned that day - that not everyone sees how I see. And slowly I realized there are many issues in life - and there are lots of authorities out there - and who’s right and who’s wrong - is it really worth arguing many things. Time will tell some things - and eternity may tell the rest of the story. Amen.

O O O O O

NOTES:

I didn't give this sermon as it appears here. It needed a lot of work and so I worked on it - and made it twice as long - in the present draft - and I'll do some more work on it - when I have more time. It's an important topic and I'd like to be clearer.

LOOK ALIKES!

Quote for Today - Monday - December 16, 2013

"Whatever you may be sure of, be sure of this - that you are dreadfully like other people."

James Russell Lowell [1819-1891]

Two questions:

Why did James Russell use the word "dreadfully"?

Ask each other: how am I like you?

WHAT ARE YOU  

WAITING FOR? 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “What Are You Waiting For?”

In a way, I think that question sums up all three readings for this Sunday - this third Sunday of Advent.

I’m also wondering if that’s one of those depth questions in every human being?

What am I waiting for? What am I looking for? What am I hoping for? What do I want?

Put that on hold - while I make a few observations about today’s readings. Then I’ll try to  tackle that depth - heart - question - the bottom line hope of every person.  What am I waiting for? What am I looking for?

THE READINGS

All three readings talk about the hope for the earth to flower and flourish. We hear that in the first reading from Isaiah, then the second reading from James - and there is also a one sentence question in the gospel - about this human hope for the earth to bloom.

Do gardeners and farmers have a better chance to get and grow God in their lives than others - in their hopes to see flowers growing - tomatoes and cucumbers  filling their gardens - as well as soybeans, wheat and corn to thrive in farmer’s fields?

Isaiah begins today’s first reading with the message: “The desert and the parched land will exult; the steppe with rejoice and bloom. They will bloom with abundant flowers, and rejoice with joyful song.”

I’ve only seen three desert areas in my life: in Arizona - near Tucson, in California, neat the Salton Sea - and in Israel - down near the Dead Sea.  I’ve also seen a few places in film where the desert was blooming because of big time irrigation systems.

So Isaiah talks about the desert and the parched earth blooming with lots of flowers. So James says that the farmer learns patience because farmers have to wait for the early and late rains. And Jesus when talking to the crowds about their fascination with John the Baptist, asks them, “What did you go out to the desert to see?”

Besides wanting to see plant life flourish - the 3 readings also get at our desire to see signs of God’s presence - God’s existence - God’s concern for us - in creation - and in each other.

That’s why folks flocked to John the Baptist.

That’s why people follow Jesus Christ to this date.

NOW WHAT ABOUT DOWN DEEP HUMAN DESIRES?

What are our down deep human desires? What are we on fire for at times?

It can be for another. Shakespeare and poets often describe young love just that way. It can be a cauldron of hot lava - splashing and spilling - all over the brim. Ah young love!

Hopefully, if we are older, it’s for less messy love  - but for deeper - more subtle and solid love - in our marriages - in our families - in our lives.

The pope has recently asked for answers about marriage and family life in a big long - complicated questionnaire - that was sent out to our world. Great idea - but - I have several buts. I took a few hours to answer it - and my main complaint was: good idea - but who the heck came up with the questions - and the way they were worded. I began assuming that the main benefit would be for the person answering the questions - and going through the process - whether anyone really answers their questions or not.

As I was answering it - I realized that on the local level - a better way of looking at marriage and family would be to have every couple and every family go through some kind of an evaluation process on the question: “How are we doing?”

When I am part of our high school Kairos retreats - we just finished our 24^th one - 4 days up in Malvern, Pennsylvania - once more I realized in listening to high school seniors - that families don’t eat together and talk together enough. Easier said than done - in our day and age - with so many events going on.

As in prayer - as in so many things - a major solution - after evaluation - a key answer is: taking and making time for what is really important.  Then when we get together - to really be present to each other - whether it’s eating, playing cards, or whatever.

So the first answer to the question: “What Are You Looking For?” or “What do I really want?” it has to be relationships.

People are more important than stuff.  We can stuff ourselves with stuff - especially the latest stuff - but people are always more important than stuff.

People are more important than sports. In fact, sports, even if Navy loses in football to Army  20 years from now, it’s always more fun enjoying a game with each other.

With Christmas coming - we know gifts are important - but we know what the kids don’t know they know - it’s the hand behind the gift that really counts.

So the first answer to the question to the question: What am I waiting for or looking for - it’s people.

My favorite example for this happened to me in a small town on the Ohio River. We had just finished preaching a parish mission in Pomeroy, Ohio. It was Thursday evening. A guy was telling me about a girl who went to a community college across the river in West Virginia. She was getting horrible marks. In fact she was failing and a student advisor called her in and asked her, “What did you here to college for?”

And the young lady gave a great answer. I said, “Wow!” And I grabbed my ball point pen and wrote on a Styrofoam cup these words, “I came here to be went with and I ain’t been went with yet.”

There it is. That’s what makes the world go round.

Jesus knew this big time - in his efforts to challenge people to love one another as they love themselves - to notice the unnoticed - to stop along the road - to help those who were stuck. To visit the sick. To feed the hungry.

But he also realized that this should, this could, lead us to get to know the one who makes the world go round - to make the universe - keep working - our Father - who is in heaven.

He was aware - you have to see the visible - before you start to catch the invisible - like a glint of light reflecting off a Christmas tree ornament.

Of course, it takes years - lots of looking back -lots of reflections -  lots of homework - to see God - behind everything - like the hand and heart behind a Christmas gift.

I often say to myself when I go by a jewelry store as well as every Saturday afternoon when I do a wedding - and we come to the ring ceremony - just after the vows: “There’s a world of difference between a wedding ring in a jewelry store window  - and the wedding rings going on ring fingers at a wedding - and those rings 37 years later."

Catch the invisible - the love that picks the engagement and wedding ring - the love behind the shopping and the supper - the love and concern behind the message to a teenager: “Give me a call if you’re stuck and you’re going to be late!” - the visit to the nursing home - the reason behind our troops being in some distant front or back station - the holding of hands of a family at the Our Father during Mass - and on and on and on.

CONCLUSION

It wasn’t till his thirties that Augustine discovered God - and a bit later when he confessed to God, “Too late I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient and ever new! Too late I loved you! And behold, you were within me, and I out of myself, and there I searched for you.”

The title of my homily was:  “What Are You Waiting For?”

What am I waiting for? What am I looking for? What do I want?

HIS FIRST PAIR OF GLASSES

[I wasn’t sure what to preach on this morning - so I read the readings for this 3^rd Sunday in Advent. I noticed the idea of seeing - seeing - was showing  up in all kinds of ways - seeing the desert bloom with flowers - a farmer seeing his fields  filled with crops as well as waiting for the rains -  seeing what John the Baptist and all that Jesus was doing - like the blind seeing - and I came up with the idea of seeing for this homily - so last night I wrote this story entitled, “His First Pair of Glasses.”]

He was 13 years old when he got his first pair of glasses.

His 2 older sisters both had perfect 20 - 20 eyesight - and never needed glasses.

It was his 8^th grade teacher who spotted him squinting. She wondered if that was the reason why he wasn’t getting straight A’s.  He seemed to be such a bright kid. What’s more this very teacher had both his sisters when they were in the 8^th grade and they were certainly big time A students.

So at the next Parents-Teachers meeting she asked Jack’s mom and dad - if they ever had Jack’s eyes tested.

“No,” they said, “but why do you ask?”

“Well,” the teacher said, “because he looks like he’s always squinting to see what he’s reading.”

“We never noticed that,” his dad said, “but we’ll have him checked.”

Sure enough Jack had really poor eyesight.

As a result Jack got his first pair of glasses.  He didn’t want contacts. He wanted glasses - real glasses. He figured they would look real cool,

They were black - distinguished black - smart looking black framed  glasses - and Jack loved them.

But better, much better, Jack began seeing all that he was missing at home and at school and in sports.

He put his wrist watch back on - because before that he couldn’t really see the numbers - so he had to ask others, “What time is it?”

He didn’t have a cell phone - and he didn’t know most kids used cell phones to tell time.

In basketball  he became a starter - averaging 11 points a game.  “Up till now,” he told one of his buddies, “I was scared to shoot - if I got into a game - because I really couldn’t see the basket.”

In school his marks improved almost immediately.

But those were obvious changes in a person who goes from horrible eyesight to 20 - 20 eyesight.

He now began noticing how his mom always touched his dad’s neck whenever she went by him at the dinner table. It was a love touch. “Nice” he thought.

He saw his mom also place her hand on his older sister Jessica’s shoulder - a sophomore in high school - when she was doing her homework or crossword puzzles. She was the only teenager he knew - who loved doing crossword puzzles.

He noticed his dad would always get up and give his oldest sister, Janet,  a hug whenever she came home. He didn’t do that to his other sister. Janet was a senior in high school and would be going off to college next September. Maybe this special hug was a hint that he would really be missing her next fall - after she leaves home - or was it because she his always his favorite?

He noticed one of his teachers completely ignored two kids in his class - who were special needs kids. As a result he found himself going over to eat lunch with them every day.

He noticed that one of the kids in his class seemed to have a hearing problem - but nobody said anything. So he told the kid, “You should ask your mom and dad to have your ears checked - to see if you need something to help you hear better.”

Then when he thought the kid was hesitating, Jack said, “See these glasses. I had really terrible eyes - and couldn’t see too well. Well,  our teacher suggested to my parents that I have my eyes checked. Sure enough, my eyes were bad, and now I see all kinds of things I never saw before.”

At church he noticed that the cross had the body of Jesus on it - while a cross in the school hall - where they sometimes had Mass - didn’t have a statue of  Jesus’ dead body on it. Why? He wondered why?

So he asked.

He found out that there was a crucifix in the hall with a Jesus statue on it. It fell one day - and Jesus broke into at least 2 dozen pieces.  So they decided to go with just a plane wooden cross - one without a body statue of the dying Jesus on it.

He learned: “Ask questions. Sometimes there are people who know answers.”

He looked up the word “eyeglasses” on Google on his computer and found out that they have a long history. In Egypt -  in the 5^th Century B.C. - that is, Before Christ - anthropologists and archaeologists - he looked up the difference between these two too - found evidence that folks used glass to magnify things.

Hey, it wasn’t till modern times that people had poor eyesight - so different folks down through the ages - fooled around with glass  and jewelry and even water - to see better - like the Chinese coming up with a type of sunglasses in the 12^th century - and Eskimos coming up with a type of snow goggles. He wondered about why people have different types of eyes.  He read that the first so called “eyeglasses” were said to have been invented in 1286. He read that Ben Franklin invented bifocals - maybe.

He found himself at age of 13 being very grateful for whoever invented eyeglasses - and wondered what he might invent or do with his life - when he got older - anthropologist, archaeologist, ophthalmologist, basketball pro. The whole world was ahead of him - to discover and to invent.

In quiet moments - he found himself - wishing he could thank those who invented and made all the things he took for granted till he got his eyeglasses - but most of those people were long dead.

Then it hit him - he could thank his parents - for all that they give him - and for his teacher who suggested that he might need eyeglasses - and that he did. Then he hit him that God who made it all - could be thanked every night for every day and every morning for every new day. Then it hit him , “If you can’t say ‘Thank you’ to those around us whom we can see - how can you thank God whom we cannot see?’”

Then one day in church he heard one of the readings saying that same thing in another way, “If you cannot love your brothers and sisters whom you can see - how can you say you love God whom you cannot see?”

At that he closed his eyes, took off his glasses, rubbed his eyes, and thanked God for everything. Then he put his totally black framed glasses back on - they were his first pair of glasses - and opened up his eyes to the whole world all around him - with a great smile on his face.

LIFE

Quote for Today - Sunday - December 15 2013

"My grandfather always said that living life is like licking honey off  a thorn."

Louis Adamic

SPIRITUAL DIRECTION 

ACCORDING  TO  

ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS

Quote for Today - December 14, 2013 - Feast of St. John of the Cross


"Spiritual directors are not the chief workers, but rather the Holy Spirit. They are mere instruments. They only guide souls by the rule of faith and the law of God according to the spirit which God gives to each. Their object, therefore, should be not to guide souls by a way of their own, suitable to themselves; but to discern, if they can, the way which God is guiding the other."

St. John of the Cross: The Ascent of Mount Carmel (16 Century).


Comment:

That's the job of a spiritual director. In other words, stay out of the way. It's like Gamaliel's advice in The Acts of the Apostles 5: 34 - 39. Don't get in the way of God. 

Now here's the job of those persons who want to get out of themselves and be with and into God. This comment is also from St. John of the Cross:

"Ecstasy is nothing but the going forth of a soul from itself. It's being caught up in God. It's what happens to the soul that is obedient, namely, that it goes forth from itself and from its own desires and thus enlightened, becomes immersed in God." 

[Spiritual Sentences and Maxims of St. John of the Cross - 16th Century.]

Comment:

Pope John Paul II and many other folks have written and talked about John of the Cross - so start exploring his stuff - some of which you can catch on the Internet. Check it out - but talk to others about what it gets you thinking about. Hence the value of spiritual direction in one's life.

LIGHT AND DARKNESS

Quote for Today - Friday - the 13th day of December, 2013

"When He came - there was no light; when He left - there was no darkness."

Anonymous

Question: Wouldn't that be a great eulogy?

Picture: taken in Sagrada Familia in Barcelona in 2011.