Wednesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Wednesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time

There was a bishop who came to the Vietnamese community to celebrate Mass, and he wanted to do the final blessing by Vietnamese, and a Vietnamese priest taught him how to do it. At the end of the Mass, when he was doing the blessing by Vietnamese, the people’s faces were shocked, and one of the altar servers was laughing. Returning to the sacristy, the bishop asked the Vietnamese priest, “did I say it wrong? Why were people shocked? " The priest politely replied, “you did fine; it was good,” but the bishop asked him again; he felt something was wrong. And the priest said to the bishop that you said, “I hit the father, slap the son and the Holy Spirit”

Today's Gospel highlights that Jesus gave them authority; it is a very significant pointregarding Christ's authority in his teaching (7:28) and in his healings and exorcisms. Jesus gives the Twelve a share in his own authority, commissioning them to do what he has been doing: preaching the kingdom of heaven (10:7), healing every disease and every illness, and driving out unclean spirits (10:1, 8). The apostles' unique authority is conveyed in their title, apostles, which means "those who are sent."

An apostle participates in the authority of the one who sends him. It means that the one who is sent is given authority by the one who sends, and this authority is to exercise the sender's will and deeds not his own will. The one who is sent can only have the ability to do what the one who send ask to do because the one who sent is higher than the one who is sent.

Reflecting on the use of authority in the world and even in the Church today, we may realize that many crises came from the abuse of authority.

The abuse of authority becomes an instrument of self-satisfaction. Many are trying to do, see, perceive everything, and use the authority related to their rights. This dangerous virus in the life of society and the Church can lead to a dangerous spiritual crisis.

When people do not use the authority according to the will of God, they start to believe that they are the only one who has the power to do what they do, to control what they want, and sadly they destroy innocent lives. The misuse of authority can collapse the society, the Church, and her people. By misusing authority, everyone wants to play the role of God, the sender, and everyone wants to be the center of their life, not God. It leads many think that "it is my children, my school, my Church, and my people, and I can do what I want. This kind of misusing authority breaks the relationship with God.

So, what should we do in using correctly authority given to us?

Today, if all the members of the Church, from the clergy to lay people, know how to rely on the humility and authority of Jesus, Jesus’ authority would be correctly used. St. John 23was an example of using correctly the authority given to him on the Chair of St. Peter. Every day, before going to bed, he said to God that "this is your Church, Lord; I am going to bed."

In the mind of Saint John 23, he understood that his authority is from Jesus who sent him, and he can only use the authority to teach, lead, and govern God's people through the will of the one who sent him, and all of these is for the glory of God.

When this kind of humility is penetrated into our hearts, we can say the same thing as what St. John 23 did. "Here your parish, Lord I am going to bed, here is your school, Lord I am going to bed and here your work, Lord I am going to bed, here your people, Lord, I am going to bed.

By virtue of baptism, each of us, "those who are sent," have been given Christ's priestly, prophetic, and kingly ministry. To speak the truth as a prophet, proclaim God's kingdom as a priest, and lead the people of God as king. We are all shared Christ's authority to continue Jesus' mission in different ways.

So today, let us be humble and set ourselves in the presence of God and correctly use all of what have been given to us for the glory of the one who sent us. May God bless us all.