My relationship with authority

A Reflection for Monday of the First Week of Advent

Find today’s readings here.

What’s your relationship with authority like?

(How’s that for an ice breaker?)

I’ll start: I am a rule follower. I’m not sure if that’s by nature or by nurture. I suppose it’s likely both. But what I know for sure is that since childhood I have been a bona fide goody two-shoes.

I am quite comfortable with authority—perhaps too comfortable. I admire the people I know who are not like me, who are quicker to question those in power when they sense injustice, who are not so afraid of getting in trouble that they hesitate to speak up. 

The centurion in today’s Gospel reading from Matthew presents authority as something that is a bit less binary. Instead, it’s a complex system of power, one in which we all can work both ways.

When the centurion approaches Jesus and asks for his help with a servant who is sick and suffering, Jesus agrees to come to the centurion’s home and cure the servant. In response, the centurion utters the line we are familiar with from the Mass: “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed.”

But it’s in his continued explanation that the keen insight on faith and authority comes. He goes on to say:

“For I too am a man subject to authority,
with soldiers subject to me.
And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes;
and to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes;
and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

He submits to Jesus openly and immediately—but he explains that he does so because he, too, knows what it means to have power and, in turn, people who answer to him. He sees himself in a system of authority, one in which he answers to some and leads others. He is not only a power-wielder; in the face of an authority like Jesus’, he is willing to follow someone else’s lead.

It seems that his own leadership experience, too, allows him to recognize in Jesus someone who wields power for good. To do so isn’t easy; power can be tempting and corrupting. But Jesus declares his intention to heal, and in the power of his words the centurion recognizes a strength used in service of others.

His thesis statement here is one we can meditate on in the complexities of modern life: I exist somewhere in a system of authority, and power is something that I give as well as take. Do I strike the right balance? Do I recognize when someone else does?

My rule-following in childhood was influenced by the reality that I, like most children, held very little power. My parents, my teachers and the adults around me had authority over me. To do well and to avoid trouble, I listened to them and tried to do what they told me. In matters of power, I followed; I didn’t lead.

But as I’ve gotten older, every so often I’ve had to step into the role of leader. As a leader, I have some authority over others. Because I was raised to respect, and even revere, authority, holding it in my own hands can feel quite heavy. I am motivated to be fair and devoted to the children in my life who I help care for, the O’Hare Fellows who report to me at work, the helpless people I encounter on the streets of New York City. 

From Jesus, I can learn something about authority. I can observe how to use it for good, and I can take comfort in knowing that there are good leaders around me to whom I can listen. And in the face of God’s authority, his loving and healing power, I can understand just how humble I am. How happy am I to be a rule follower when the rule of God’s day is love.

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