Authority and Trust

Jan 2: Memorial of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen

I’ve been thinking about the Church’s authority lately, so I don’t know if today’s readings are for me, or if I’m projecting my own interests onto them.

Either way, don’t trust me, trust in the Holy Spirit, and hope that it guides my writing and your reading today.

Reading I

1 Jn 2:22-28

Beloved: Who is the liar? Whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Whoever denies the Father and the Son, this is the antichrist. Anyone who denies the Son does not have the Father, but whoever confesses the Son has the Father as well.

Let what you heard from the beginning remain in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, then you will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made us: eternal life. I write you these things about those who would deceive you. As for you, the anointing that you received from him remains in you, so that you do not need anyone to teach you. But his anointing teaches you about everything and is true and not false; just as it taught you, remain in him.

And now, children, remain in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not be put to shame by him at his coming.

Even in the early Church, there was heresy. Some people denied the Jesus was the Christ, for example.

The difficulty that arises in the Gospels is, Jesus couldn’t possibly refute every single possible heresy that might pop up some day. That would’ve taken His entire ministry, and He had more important things to do with His time on earth.

So the Church, here represented by John, has to defend the faith against various errors and mistakes. John makes the case logically: you can’t know the Father except through the Son, and if you deny the Son, you must be denying the Father.

This sort of apologetics has been continuing for thousands of years, from John’s letters to Augustine’s Confessions and Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologica, even through today, including Benedict XVI’s Deus Caritas Est.

Not that you should have to read all of these works. That’s a lot, and some of it is quite dense. But the same is true of law books and medical texts, which is why we have lawyers and doctors.

And it’s why you should be talking to your priest or spiritual director regularly. You don’t want to wind up as one of the liars St. John condemns.

Responsorial Psalm

98:1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4

R.     All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.
Sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done wondrous deeds;
His right hand has won victory for him,
his holy arm.
R.    All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.
The LORD has made his salvation known:
in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.
He has remembered his kindness and his faithfulness
toward the house of Israel.
R.    All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation by our God.
Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
break into song; sing praise.
R.    All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.

Even non-Christians have seen the glory of God. They may not realize or understand it, but God is acting in their lives.

God is acting in our lives, too. You’ve seen the salvation by our God, but have you really understood it, taken it in? If so, sing praise!

Alleluia

Heb 1:1-2

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
In times, past, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets:
in these last days, he has spoken to us through his Son.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

The prophets pointed the way, but they didn’t tell the full story. That’s why God sent His only Son, the Word. That’s why we still listen to the Gospel—

Gospel

Jn 1:19-28

This is the testimony of John. When the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to him
to ask him, “Who are you?” He admitted and did not deny it, but admitted, “I am not the Christ.”

So they asked him, “What are you then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.” So they said to him, “Who are you, so we can give an answer to those who sent us? What do you have to say for yourself?”

He said: “I am the voice of one crying out in the desert, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.” 

Some Pharisees were also sent. They asked him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ or Elijah or the Prophet?” 

John answered them, “I baptize with water; but there is one among you whom you do not recognize, the one who is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.” This happened in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

If you remember from Saturday, John was interspersing poetry with prose. Here, he’s finally started the story proper, with John the Baptist.

Authority isn’t always right. Here, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, experts in Judaism, are drilling John, trying to trip him into saying something untrue, like maybe he’s Elijah returned or something like that. But John simply answers with the truth. He can’t be tripped up because he’s not lying.

How can we, today, know that we’re following the true inheritors of apostolic authority, and not just the modern equivalent of Pharisees? Well, we can’t know.

As I said after the first reading, there’s been thousands of years of developments in Christian theology. It’s really hard to keep up with it all. Besides, humans, including priests and theologians,¹ are fallible. What if they’re wrong?

That’s where faith comes in. We have to have faith that Jesus sent His Holy Spirit, like He said he would, to guide the Church. We have to have hope that He will continue to do so, and we’ll continue to be the Catholic, universal, Church for all Christians everywhere.

1. And especially me.