Authority and Power

Wednesday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time C-2

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Sir 36: 18 Give peace, O Lord, to those who wait for you, that your prophets be found true. Hear the prayers of your servant, and of your people Israel.

Collect Look upon us, O God, Creator and ruler of all things, and, that we may feel the working of your mercy, grant that we may serve you with all our heart. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.

Scripture today: Proverbs 30:5-9; Psalm 118; Luke 9:1-6

When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He told them: Take nothing for the journey— no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. If people do not welcome you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave their town, as a testimony against them. So they set out and went from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere. (Luke 9:1-6)

Authority and Power One can have authority but little power. The Australian aboriginal population had the authority (because of long-standing use) to occupy their lands and defend them against invasion. But they lacked the power to do so in the face of the British arrival, and so they lost control of their lands. The papacy had the authority to rule over the papal states in the nineteenth century, but lacked the power to do so in the face of revolution and military aggression. In fact, it rarely had this power and depended on the power of others to defend its authority. On the other hand, a person can possess the power to do certain things, but not have the authority to do so. Lieutenant William Bligh was appointed Commanding Lieutenant of the HMS Bounty in August 1787 at the age of 32. He had been sailing master of James Cook’s HMS Resolution during Cook’s final voyage (1776-1779). He had the authority to command the Bounty, but lost the power to so when Fletcher Christian led his mutiny on 28 April 1789. Bligh and some fellow officers were set adrift in a small craft on the open sea. Christian seized the power without any authority to command the Bounty, while Bligh possessed the authority but had lost the power to do command it. In our Gospel today (Luke 9: 1-6) our Lord called the Twelve together and gave them both the power and the authority (dunamin kai exousian) over all the demons and to cure diseases. Having done this, he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. They went as his envoys, his ambassadors. We read elsewhere that when Christ selected from his disciples the Twelve, he called them apostles — apostoloi, ambassadors. They went as his envoys, with the formal authority to speak and act in his name. Not all his disciples had this “authority,” this permission, this standing, as persons carrying a charge that came directly from him. The Twelve were invested with the authority of being the King’s envoys. In their proclamation of the kingdom of God, people were to respect them and listen to them as envoys of Jesus the Messiah. He who hears you, our Lord said, hears me (Luke 10:16).

But further, they had been endowed with certain powers. Let us remember that many prophets had authority to speak in God’s name, but lacked special powers. There is no indication that John the Baptist had any powers beyond the ordinary, but he had full authority as a prophet, and the people knew this. We do not read of John driving out demons at a word, nor healing the sick at a word. His authority to announce God’s word was recognized because he claimed it, and proved it by both the word of God’s manifest persuasiveness and by the holiness of his own life. We do not read of Jeremiah driving out demons nor of his healing the sick. Now, the Twelve were not sent out as persons whose manifest holiness of life would vindicate their authority to speak of the kingdom of God. At this point, they were good Jews, but there is no indication that any of them were saints as yet, whereas John the Baptist was a living saint. Yet Christ gave to them his authority to speak in his name. Just as a classical prophet (say, Micah, Hosea, and many others) was given the authority by God to speak in his name, so the Twelve were given the authority by Christ to speak in his name. They were, in a broad sense, “prophets” of Christ, though not speaking “under inspiration,” as it were. In their case, their authority was buttressed not by their own eminent holiness but by the grant of power to cast out demons and to heal sicknesses. They had Christ’s authority to speak in his name, and they had been granted a share in Christ’s own powers. So they went out, confident in the authority granted them by their Master to speak in his name, and empowered to act as he had been acting. They preached the good news, drove out demons and healed the sick. It was a harbinger of what was to come. Just as Christ was about to ascend to the right hand of his heavenly Father, he charged his disciples to go to the whole world and make disciples of all the nations. They were to go on his authority, but also with the powers invested in the Church to endow with the Holy Spirit and to sanctify.

The Church bears with her the authority of Christ to preach, to define, to shepherd Christ’s faithful and to sanctify. Christ has established and built his Church, and it has his authority to do what he charged it to do. It also has a great share in his powers. The Church has the power to bring the Sacraments to the faithful, the greatest of those powers being to celebrate the holy Eucharist. It has the power to teach the faith without error. It has the power to resist Satan and to bring the faithful to God as his children. Let us maintain in our hearts a profound reverence for the Church our mother who has been given the authority and the power to take us to God.

(E.J.Tyler)

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