28th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B) – October 13, 2024

St. Paul – Lyons, KS

Wisdom 7:7-11; Psalm 90:12-17; Hebrews 4:12-13; Mark 10:17-30

Authority

As I’ve shared many times, one very important part of my life growing up was playing the cello. Lessons, rehearsals, quartets, solos, duos, the Wichita Youth Symphony, playing in the actual Wichita Symphony as a senior in high school—it was a huge part of my life growing up. But as I’ve shared before, playing the cello came at a cost. And the cost was that I had to endure the tyranny and dictatorship of Quinn, of my teacher (I’m just kidding, Quinn is a very sweet lady). But sweet as she is, it’s true: I did have to place myself under her authority, I had to entrust myself to her leadership and authority, submit to her teaching and guidance. And because of that, I got better and better and better. Yes, I had my part to play in that equation, but without her it would have been impossible.

When I was in seminary, in college seminary, I played on the basketball team. And our coach was an old timer by the name of Skip Shear. Skip had been an assistant coach at Indiana under Bobby Knight—so if that tells you where Skip learned his coaching style. Skip was hard on us! He worked us. And yet, we won championship after championship. Why? Because he knew how to lead. And even more, we knew that our success depended on following his leadership, his authority.

I could give example after example. But my point is this: we know (we know!) that an authority, following an authority, entrusting our lives to an authority, enduring the suffering of following this authority—all of this leads to growth, to excellence, to joy, to life. You tell your kids to listen to their teachers and coaches, why? Because kids (as talented as they may be) still need an authority to lead and guide them, to help them grow. This is also why people try to emulate their favorite players. This is why people are willing to suffer so much in order to get better. All of it! We recognize the goodness, the necessity of an authority.

But sports, school, music—that’s about where our respect for authority, our recognition that authority is a good thing—that’s about where it ends. Especially in America, it is in our DNA to not trust authority. We were founded on it! “Don’t tread on me!” It’s funny: “I’ll do whatever coach tells me to do, suffer, throw up, bleed, pass out—anything to play football…” But when we get to other forms of authority—well, we start to balk. And especially when it comes to our faith—we balk, we’re hesitant to accept any kind of definitive authority. It’s in our DNA.

“I believe in…[an] Apostolic Church”

The reason I bring this up is because of this series we’re in right now, this series on “The Church.” Every week, we stand up and profess in the Creed, “I believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.” But it’s easy to blow past that. And the simple—simple but profound, and profoundly important question to get right—is, “Well, what is the Church?” Is “church” just a building? Is “church” just any group that prays to Jesus, just different flavors of Jesus lovin’? When Jesus ascended into heaven and was enthroned as the Royal-Cosmic-Priest, King of the Universe, Lord or heaven and earth—did Jesus just leave behind a Bible and/or a Catechism and say, “Good luck! Just be nice! Be good people!”? Is that what all of this is?

Like we covered last week, “The Church”—capital T, capital C “The Church—as the Sacred Tradition and the Sacred Scriptures make clear, The Church is the ONE bride of Christ, Jesus is the bridegroom. The Church is the ONE people, this qahal, the ekklesia to whom the one God, the one Lord, has wed himself. Jesus is the bridegroom, we are the bride. The Church is the people of God who are in a covenantal relationship with God in and through Jesus Christ. Ok. That’s the mystery (remember? History versus mystery? This is the “more than meets the eye” of “The Church”). Great! But then—and very, very importantly (and we can’t miss this)—this invisible mystery, this “more than meets the eye”—it has to meet the eye, it also needs a visible manifestation. 

Why? Because the only way we get access to this invisible mystery is through the visible. In other words, the visible Church—the ONE visible Church is essential. And more importantly: we don’t get to invent what it looks like. Why? Because Jesus already did. In the Old Testament covenant, there was a God-given structure: God taught, gave rituals for worship, appoint leaders. So too, in this New Testament covenant, Jesus gives a structure: teachings, rituals for worship, and he appoints leaders: the apostles, and the chief apostle Peter (who we now call the Bishops and the Pope). And the early Church knew this. Again, St. Clement (who was the bishop in Rome after St. Peter)—Clement always urged the people toward a concrete unity: unity in the teachings, unity in the worship, and unity in the leadership. And it’s this piece, the piece of leadership, of the authority of the Church, that I want to dive into today. What we call the “Apostolic” dimension of the Church. Last week we talked about how the church is one, this week how it is apostolic.

There is and ancient Christian principle that goes like this: lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi. It’s Latin for “as we worship, so we believe, so we live.” Orandi, credendi, vivendi. One of the ways that we pray is what’s called the Preface. It’s that part of Mass when I say, “The Lord be with you… Lift up your hearts… Let us give thanks to the Lord our God…”—and then I start the Preface. In the Preface that we pray on the feast day of the Apostles, or on the feast days of Pope and Bishops, we pray this Preface: “It is truly right and just… For you, eternal Shepherd, do not desert your flock, but through the blessed Apostles watch over it and protect it always, so that it may be governed by those you have appointed shepherds to lead it in the name of your Son.” This is how we worship (lex orandi): Jesus, the eternal Shepherd, does not desert us, his flock, but continues to lead and guide and govern it, how? Through the Apostles, through the apostolic ministry—through our Bishops and Popes. This is how we worship (lex orandi). The question is: “Do I believe this (lex credendi)?” And, “Do I live this (lex vivendi)?” This is what people have believed since the first Christians after Jesus’ Ascension two thousand years ago: Jesus is still leading and guiding his Church, the Bride, His sheep through his Apostles. Jesus remains on earth in the flesh of this concrete companionship, the Church, which reaches us through the Diocese of Wichita, in Kansas, in the United States in 2024.

“Follow my own idea or entrust myself to this guided companionship?”

Here’s what it boils down to (are you ready?): every morning I am given the choice: do I follow my own idea of the Church, or Jesus, or faith and truth and the Bible, OR do I entrust myself to this guided companionship—the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church—that makes Jesus Christ a real, persuasive and decisive presence? We all stand up and say it, we pray it (lex orandi). But do we believe it (lex credendi) and do we live it (lex vivendi)? Do I follow my own ideas, my own ideology about the Church, what I have decided is true, what I think is right, what I agree with, my own interpretations? Or, do I follow the concrete, visible, tangible Church, the Apostolic Church, this concrete companionship that is led, and governed and guided by Jesus Christ through His Apostle in Rome (the Pope) and through His Apostle in our Diocese, the Bishop?

We could ask it this way: what makes my heart different than Martin Luther’s heart? Martin Luther was the instigator of a mass protest from the One, Apostolic Church in the 1500’s. He is the first domino that led to there now being almost 40,000 different Protestant denominations in the world. But before he broke unity with the Church, Luther was a Catholic priest, he celebrated the Eucharist daily, received the Eucharist every day, and he followed what he legitimately thought was true and best for the Church. What makes me different than that?

Or what makes me different than any of the other Christian churches in town? They love Jesus, they love and revere the Sacred Scriptures, they practice works of mercy and charity, they are following what they legitimately think is the truth. They also have leaders. How is my heart different?

This is one of the many reasons I love this passage we read in our Gospel today—this story of the Rich Young Man, probably my favorite passage in all of the Gospels. Here in this encounter between Jesus and the Rich Young Man, we see what can easily happen at the level of the human heart. This young man loves God, follows his commandments, follows what he believes is true. But then he runs into a challenge: Jesus, the Authority—Jesus asks him to do something, and it is the one thing that he cannot do: Jesus asks him to follow him. And he doesn’t. Why? Yes, because he is rich. But what’s the real issue? The issue is that in his idea, in his idea of the loving Jesus and following Jesus—in his idea, his ideology, loving God and being a good person shouldn’t involve giving up his money. Jesus, the Bridegroom himself, literally Jesus himself, is standing in front of him, telling him not to follow his own idea but to follow Jesus and his Apostles, to entrust himself to this companionship—and he wont do it. The Rich Young Man chooses to follow his own idea, and not to entrust himself to Jesus and this companionship, the Church. Peter shows us the opposite decision, Peter says, “We have given up everything and followed you!” Do you see that? Ok.

Lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi

That’s what I mean: every morning I am given the choice: do I follow my own idea of the Church, or Jesus, or faith and truth and the Bible, OR do I entrust myself to this guided companionship—the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church—that makes Jesus Christ a real, persuasive and decisive presence? Do I believe this? Do I live this?

For example, when our Apostle, when Bishop Kemme writes a letter to his local church with an authoritative decision about the music at Mass, or about this capital campaign, or about anything—when Pope Francis makes a decision—when a teaching is given by the Church—think: Is my first reaction to grumble and question and gossip? Do I think, “Well, I didn’t vote for him”? Do I say, “Well, I don’t agree with that”? Like the Rich Young Man, do we balk at following Jesus, balk at authority? Or, do we follow? Like we do in sports and school and music. Like Peter says to Jesus in John 6, after Jesus had just said some pretty difficult things, “This is a hard saying. I don’t totally understand it. But to them else shall we go? Only you have the words that have resonated with my heart. Maybe it is I who need to let my own ideas be transformed.”

The Church—capital “T,” capital “C,” The Church—is One, and it is Apostolic. Jesus continues to lead his Church in and through the Apostles, the Bishops and the Pope. The question is this: Am I truly following an Authority? Or am I simply following myself, and only following the Authority when I agree with it? (And when the Authority doesn’t agree with what I think, the Authority is wrong?) Am I living like a good Protestant, like Luther, just hoping to get a new Pope or a new Bishop or someone who finally agrees with me—so that I don’t have to change?

Very importantly for us, do I feel like I belong to this concrete local Church, called the Diocese of Wichita, where there is a real-life apostle of Jesus Christ? I remember Bishop Jackels would always say, “The Diocese of Wichita: from Bushton to Baxter Springs, from Fort Scott to Zenda”—do I feel like I belong to this one local church called the Diocese of Wichita? Do I feel like I belong to a concrete people that dwell in every corner of the earth, whose story goes back thousands of years—and people that has been shepherded by the real-life Peter, the Pope?

There is a part of our Protestant American DNA—we’re Americans, so we were founded on Protestant principles, a principle of not trusting authority. And it continues to be in the very air we breathe. Every talking head, every comment on the community page on Facebook will give you a thousand reasons not to trust, to be skeptical of authority. But we have to avoid the idea of suspicion when it comes to listening to and following our Apostles. We should take the position of a disciple: try to understand where the Master is coming from, how Jesus is trying to change me in this situation. Talking heads and headlines (both in secular news and in Catholic news) are often more concerned with their own agenda rather than following Christ who leads us through Peter in Rome and our Apostle Carl in Wichita.

Authority is not a dirty word. It is so good to have a good Father who is guiding us through his Son, working through His shepherds. This is one of the reasons why it is so, so good to be Catholic! Because it is not the Church of “me” or the Church of “we.” It is the Apostolic Church, the One, Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ himself.