Sunday 5th of November 2023 - The Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

Malachi 1:14-2:2,8-10/ Psalm 130(131)/ 1 Thessalonians 2:7-9,13/ Matthew 23:1-12

To practice what you preach. This is the challenge to all in positions of authority. The gospel for today has the strongest words Jesus had for the Scribes and Pharisees, the religious leaders of their day. Instead of service to the people they had become full of their own importance, seeking privilege, honour, and recognition in society. They were failing to teach by example but were imposing impossible burdens on the people and then castigating them for the failure to carry them. The leadership had created an empty cult devoid of genuine meaning. The fathers of the faith, the teachers of God’s laws were failing to teach properly. They were not worthy of being called father or teacher. As Jesus pointed out, there is only one father and that is God, and the only teacher is Jesus. This command from Jesus is directed at the leadership of the day but can also be extended people in leadership today.

We are all equal in the sight of God and therefore we should treat each other as equals. That said we need guidance and teaching to understand and follow the gospel message. Jesus appointed Peter as the first leader of his church on earth. The Pope of today is the successor to Peter and the bishops successors to the apostles. The priests and deacons of today share in the ministry of Jesus, through the authority of the Pope and bishops, and therefore share the ministry of God’s fathership and the ministry of Jesus as teacher. We acknowledge the fathership of God and the teaching of Jesus by referring to the Pope, bishops, and priests as father and teacher because they share in that ministry through their ordination. They should not be seeking privilege, honour, and recognition for their own work but for the work God is doing through them. It is God the Father and Jesus the teacher that we are recognising through the service of our ordained ministers.

The first reading and the gospel contain severe warnings to those entrusted to leadership. In the Old Testament the leaders were being accused of not being impartial and causing many to stumble due to their poor teaching. In the gospel passage Jesus brings the same message to the religious leaders of his day. The Pharisees encouraged strict observance of the many laws that had developed over the years, the scribes were the lawyers who backed them up and together they became little gods seeking praise and adulation from the people rather than leading the people in praise of God. In avidly upholding the law they lost sight of the purpose behind it, using it to control and manipulate the people who looked to them for guidance.

Jesus acknowledged that there was a need for leadership and guidance warning that the people should listen to what the appointed leaders said but not be guided by what they do because they were not practicing what they preach. This warning can be just as relevant today as then. We need the teaching guidance that comes to us through the church and its appointed leaders, but, due to our human failings, we also can fail to practice what we preach and can become poor examples of what it is to be a Christian. The teaching might be sound, but the example set could be poor. We need to recognise sound teaching as apposed to poor examples in life.

Pual reminds us in the second reading that God’s message is from God and not from some human thinking. Although God entrusted his message of salvation to the church it can easily be twisted by human thinking. In the secular world in which we live positions of authority are often accompanied by the bestowing of rank or status. Even in societies that claim total equality, badges of state, symbols of authority and a feeling of power over others still exists. Jesus speaks strongly through the gospel for today against this human way of behaving. Leadership in the church is a leadership of service, avoiding the trappings of status, pomp, ostentation and even the use of titles. These should only serve to remind us of the titles and reverence that belong only to God, and we acknowledge them in church leaders because they share the duty to be faithful leaders and teachers of God’s message. It is out of respect of who is speaking through the individual rather than the status of the individual themselves.

What can so easily happen today as it did in the days of the first reading and the gospel passage is that the teaching that comes to us from the church suffers from the human traits embedded in all of us. The church can become an imitation of worldly organisations, following their example, rather than calling the world to a new and different style of living. Paul is a prime example of what it should look like to be a leader of service in the church. From his letters there can be no doubt that Paul exercised authority and even administered rebukes for poor behaviour, but he never sought to ‘lord it’ over people nor did he seek praise or privilege. Paul maintained his civil profession earning his keep within the communities he served, committing himself entirely to them. His was the example of the Christian leadership that Jesus demands of those chosen to lead his church on earth. We have an example of this type of humble leadership in Pope Francis and in many of our faith leaders today.

We, as Christians, are all called to a humble life dedicated to service. Christian leadership should follow the same pattern following the example set by Jesus, the servant messiah. The world is not used to this style of leadership which is why it is most important to follow it now as much as ever. Those who might be deemed the greatest amongst us must be the servants of those they are appointed to serve. We must not seek to be exalted but to reflect God as the Father of all and Jesus as the teacher of all through the example of our lives.

God Bless Brendan