Fourteenth Sunday
in Ordinary Time
Zechariah 9:9-10
Romans 8:9, 11-13
Matthew 11:25-30

American English is a fascinating language. The richness in any living language is the nuance that experience brings to the words. This explains why some words have different meanings for different people.

While many would say that “power” and “authority” are synonyms, one of my college professors distinguished authority from power by suggesting that power comes from outside the person and authority like authorship arises from within. It is a distinction that resonates with my experience. For me, authority whispers; power shouts. For me, power is a title; authority is a person. Authority is impressive; power is depressing. In the best of all worlds, those who are given power would be those who already have authority. This is not the best of all worlds.

In today’s Gospel, we see the tension between power and authority. Throughout Jesus’ life, people wondered at the authority his words carried. The Scribes and Pharisees had power and they spoke to the powerful. Jesus had no title. No organization had conferred power upon him. Yet, even the simple listened to him. The ordinary Jewish people recognized in Jesus a wisdom that came from within. “All things have been handed over to me by my Father,” Jesus says. He speaks with the authority that comes from within because he is one with the Father. Throughout his ministry, that relationship lies at the heart of Jesus’ relationship to his followers. His authority is informed by love. And this, it seems to me, is why Jesus’ yoke is easy and burden light.

And so it is for all of us. Credentials and titles are important in matters of the head. Perhaps they confer power but they do not impart authority. Authority is a matter of the heart, a time when we become one with each other and relationship takes over. The yoke of religion is heavy only when it presents itself as the sort of power that makes people feel helpless rather than the authority that enlivens the community.

This is the principle that governs the Church. The temptation to rely on power is a mighty one. When we yield to it, we become like every other community. When we instead become one with the simple and the vulnerable, we enter into the wisdom of Jesus. In those moments of seeming weakness, when the Church shows the universal love of God, we achieve the authority that allows us to speak the Gospel.

At this Eucharistic celebration, we give thanks for the authority of the Church and pray for the grace to let that authority overcome any desire that we might have for power.