My Catholic Life!: The Authority of God - Monday, November 28, 2022

“Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed. 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.” Matthew 8:8–9

These are words spoken by a man who is very familiar with the exercise of authority. He is a Roman centurion, and he states that he himself is “a man subject to authority” and that he also has soldiers who are subject to him. Thus, his daily life consists of following orders and giving orders that are to be obeyed.

When authority is exercised properly, it is a gift that helps to order society, family life, the life of the Church and even our personal lives. Of course, when authority is exercised improperly, in an oppressive and abusive way, it causes much damage. But the exercise of authority is, in and of itself, an act that has the potential to do much good.

Jesus Himself is quite impressed with the Roman centurion in the Gospel passage quoted above. Of him, Jesus states, “Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.” Imagine having the Son of God say that about you! Jesus is impressed, in part, because the centurion acknowledges that he is not worthy to have Jesus come to his house. This is humility, in that the centurion clearly perceives his unworthiness. But Jesus is also impressed because the man manifests a clear and certain faith in Jesus’ authority to heal his servant from a distance. He does not hesitate to profess his belief in this authority of our Lord.

In our own lives, we are often lacking in this area. We face a difficulty (such as the illness this centurion’s servant was enduring), and instead of turning to God with full and unwavering confidence, we turn in on ourselves. We become anxious, fearful, doubtful, confused and sometimes even angry. When any of these qualities are present, it is not because of the difficult situation we face; rather, it is because of our lack of faith and our lack of confidence in the all-powerful authority of our Lord.

In the case of the Roman centurion’s servant, it was the will of God that Jesus physically heal, and so He did. But in the countless daily challenges we face in life, God’s answers might be varied. One unwavering quality we must always have is a certain conviction that God desires to exercise His loving authority in our lives, in the way He chooses, if we trust Him and invite Him to take control.

Reflect, today, upon the perfection of the authority of Christ. Do you believe that He can exercise His perfection of power in your life? Do you believe that His authority is what is needed to order your life, your family, our Church and even our world? Prayerfully submit yourself to the authority of Christ this day and allow yourself to become amazed as you witness all that He is able to do.

All-powerful Father, I entrust to You my life and every situation in my life that needs Your power and control. Please bring order and harmony to my life and to the lives of those around me. May all Your children learn to more fully entrust themselves to You as their loving God. Jesus, I trust in You.

A daily devotional reflection on the Gospel reading. Please FReepmail me if you would like to be added or removed from the ping list.

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In our own lives, we are often lacking in this area.

When we see legitimately held authority squandered and misused, we can tend to reject the very idea of authority. This is an error: God has absolute authority, and really does delegate it in both the secular and sacred realms. We should not dismiss others' authority lightly, and we should take care to exercise our own authority as God would have us.

Well said. Just because something good and even established by God such as legitimate authority can be (and often is) abused, it doesn't negate the respect we are required to have for it. Our parents don't stop being our parents because of the failures they might have at parenting. This also goes for the obedience wives owe their husbands in his exercise of legitimate authority as head of the household. Similarly, we owe our God ordained Church leaders obedience.

This does not discount honest questioning, but it does preclude prideful defiance. Also, obedience to authority does not mean one has to stand for any kind of abuse or obey commands that violate one's properly formed moral and religious conscience.

Excellent post. I have for some time now pondered on the need to place my faith and trust in Jesus. To remind myself of the need to do this, when bowing before the Tabernacle, and at the presentation of the Body and Blood during mass, I pray, “Dominus Meus, et Deus Meus, My lord and My God, Jesus, I trust in you”.

The statement of trust obviously from the Divine Mercy. Not sure why I say the bit in both Latin and English and was thinking just the other day, I really don’t know if Jesus ever spoke in Latin. Then again, was the Centurion speaking in Aramaic to Jesus? Guess I will never know.

Putting our faith and trust in Jesus is both one of the most essential yet one one the most difficult things we are called to do. It requires a daily recommitment to Jesus every day of our lives and at times of trouble. Small acts of devotion such as you mention are great helps.

It is thought that Jesus could probably speak Greek since it was the business language of the ancient Roman world at this time. Being a carpenter, he would find little work in such a small town as Nazareth, so he (and St Joseph before him) would have travelled to the larger, Greek speaking cities to find work. One such town, Sepphoris, was within a days walk of Nazareth.

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