4th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2021
Deuteronomy 18:15-20; 1 Cor 7: 32-35; Mark 1: 21-28
I think that I have spoken before about the two Latin words for “authority”. There is imperium which is authority in the sense of “power” or “control”, as in “having authority” over someone, or in the way that we speak of “the authorities”.
Then there is auctoritas, from which the English word “authority” is derived. This is “moral” authority, when someone knows what s/he is talking about, is “an authority” on a subject, and so has the ability, not to force, but to persuade. This word has its root in the verb augere “to cause to increase”, which implies that this form of authority is intended to help people grow.
Which sense of the word is being employed here, on the two occasions on which it is used? “Unlike the scribes” we are told, “Jesus taught them with authority”. It seems fairly clear that this is auctoritas: Jesus knew what He was talking about, and it is rather disturbing that the scribes, the people with imperium, apparently didn’t.
Later, the word occurs again. It is unfortunate that Greek doesn’t make the same distinction as Latin, but uses the same word exousia for both kinds of authority. This time, it is the people who are speaking: “Here is a teaching that is new,” they say, “and with authority behind it”. This would appear to be auctoritas again, but they go on to say “He gives orders even to unclean spirits and they obey Him.”
This is imperium. Our Lord has power over these spirits, and is able to drive them out. In effect, though, it is both. His imperium derives from His auctoritas. Nobody appoints Him to a position of power: His power is based on His knowledge and understanding.
That is how it should always be: temporal authority should always be based on moral authority, and should enable people to grow. Is that how it works in our world today?
In the best situations, we may say that it is. In a functioning family, for instance, parents have power over their children, but this derives from their love for their children, and their desire to help them grow. A tyrannical father, who lords it over the family, may have power, but he lacks moral authority, and will not contribute to his family’s growth.
What about the world at large? In a mature society, power should again be based on moral authority, but how often is that so in practice? If we counted up the nations of the world, I suspect that dictatorships might outnumber free societies. So often the truth of Lord Acton’s dictum is demonstrated: “All power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.
Even in the self-styled “land of the free” the United States, we have seen how dictatorship can arise. For four years, someone whom mental health professionals defined as “a narcissistic sociopath” exercised power on a whim, and when that power was due to be taken from him as the result of a democratic election, tried all means to cling on, and sought to destroy his compatriots’ trust in democracy. In our own country, Prime Ministers have sought to bypass Parliament, and have been thwarted only by the vigilance of the Parliamentary Speaker.
Many of us of a certain vintage will have experienced the abuse of power in schools, especially in all-boys schools, where the bullying schoolmaster of legend was frequently a flesh and blood reality. And what about the Church? The horrors of clerical sex abuse are as dreadful an example as one could find of the abuse of power, and whilst the age of curate-breaker parish priests may largely have passed, there are still plenty of prince bishops and hectoring priests, keen to lecture people on their supposed failings, teaching without auctoritas, imposing rules at will, and refusing to surrender what they regard as their just imperium.
So where do we stand? If we have power of any sort, we must strive to ensure that it is rooted in moral authority. The more firmly we are fixed in Christ, bringing our plans and decisions before Him in prayer, and in the light of His word, the more likely is this to be the case. Also we must be vigilant, questioning abuses of power where we see them, whether in society or in the Church. But let us always ensure that we allow others, and especially Christ who speaks in our inmost heart, to question us.
