WORD 2day

1st June 2013

Authority...that is the point of contention today! Authority is not given; authority is created, its from within. Power could be given, but authority is assumed. One who can create oneself, one who can author oneself, one who can define oneself in a particular context is considered an authority. When the scribes and pharisees approached Jesus with that question, they were clear as to whom they were addressing it. They knew that the person of Jesus had an authority about him that they have never seen in anyone before. That authority came from within, from the fact that Jesus wished, never his own will but his Father's, he said he never spoke what he wanted but what his Father wanted and that he did only what the Father wanted. There was an internal consistency, an integrity, that was so obvious in the person of Jesus, that he was growing rapidly unacceptable in the eyes of all who were caught in the day to day hypocrisy. Integrity comes from balanced priorities, for where our treasure is, there our hearts will be. When I look for integral values, as the first reading suggests, I look up to integral persons and set for myself integral goals. In a world which adores popularity and craves for power, Authority is what we need to look for and culture from within.