Third Monday of Advent

Gospel: Mt 21:23-27

I’ve had difficulty with church authority even before I was fired as Pastoral Associate for being gay. Around the globe over the last decades, painful stories of clergy sexual abuse have severely damaged the credibility and consequently, the authority of the church. It is difficult for many concerned Catholics to be obedient to the church’s pastors, as the Code of Canon Law teaches. It is difficult to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ preached with integrity when so many sins of the some within the institutional church have and continue to be uncovered. 

Having eyes open to the centuries of Christian imperialism, cultural genocide, racism, the abuse of the rights and dignity of women and LGBTQ+, clericalism, and many sins of the church is perhaps like being at the foot of the cross on Good Friday beholden to the bruised, bloodied, and frail body of Jesus. It is ugly and at times I wish I could close my eyes to it all. Like myself, I suspect many others who work for justice, peace, healing, and reconciliation in the church want to do the same. And yet, so many of us remain committed to the work of justice, in part, because we have the authority to do so.

Our authority is rooted in our baptismal dignity as children of God.

Our authority is rooted in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit who empowers us. 

Our authority is rooted in our faithfulness to Jesus’ command to bring about God’s kin-dom on earth.

Today’s gospel teaches us about the authority with which Jesus carries out his mission. It comes from his loving parent and through the power of the Holy Spirit. It comes from his selflessness for the sake of healing, reconciliation, and restoration. It is not only because of his lineage (that we read in the beginning of Matthew’s gospel) that Jesus has authority, but also because we see it carried out in his teaching, healing, forgiving, compassion, suffering, death, and resurrection. In the same way, not everyone who says Lord, Lord, will enter the kin-dom of heaven - as Jesus teaches in Matthew chapter 7. Like Jesus, we must use that authority in teaching, healing, forgiving, and working for justice and peace. 

It is in the midpoint of Matthew’s gospel that we hear that authority is given to the apostles by Jesus to bind and to loose. In other words, to determine what is true. The Catholic church teaches that the bishops are the present day apostles and they alone are the deciders. However, the church also teaches that they are not the only discerners of truth. All people must not only discern the truth, but we also have the duty to share that with the church. (See Code of Canon Law Title I.) 

Indeed, the Synod on Synodality which recently concluded was an exercise in that communal discernment. While so many, like myself, were disappointed that issues like the ordination of women and the inclusion of LGBTQ+ people did not see progress, we can still find hope that the final document normalizes the need for the consent of the people within ecclesial discernment (See “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation and Mission - Final Document,” paragraph 88.) It is with that consensual synergy that we find the true authority of the bishops of the church. In a landmark teaching on synodality, the church teaches that the authentic authority of the bishops lies in its synergy with all the People of God (See “Synodality in the Life and Mission of the Church” paragraphs 36 and 106). As much as my instincts want me to reject the authority of bishops because my eyes have been opened to its abuse, I remain trusting that the Holy Spirit works through them, as much as I trust the Holy Spirit works through all people of good will. And the trust I have in episcopal authority is not expressed in blind obedience but in courageous truth telling. 

On this day on our Advent journey in which we reflect on Jesus’ authority, may our own God-given authority to be ministers of justice, peace, healing, and reconciliation be renewed.

Mark Guevarra is a doctoral student at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California.