In the Name of the Lord 奉主之名

Sixth Easter Sunday, Year C
Theme: In the Name of the Lord 奉主之名

Men are social animals. They are not able to survive alone. It is essential for them to live together in groups of various sizes. They need the support of the others. This truth is lay down in the first book of the Bible, “The Lord God said: it is not good for the man to be alone.” (Genesis 2:18a) But living together is a skill which all of us have to learn because each person is unique. God gives each one of us different potentials and strengths. Some are more powerful than the others. Naturally, leaders and followers arise when men live together. Order has to be maintained and conflicts have to be resolved. For good or for bad, it is fortunate that men obey authority for the sake of staying together in harmony. Thus, men are able to live relatively peacefully together within a group and to trade happily among different communities.

Leaders could command obedience by brute force. But it is inefficient because in the end, those who follow might have been maimed and definitely weak. It saves more energy by conjuring up higher authorities to attract and to mobilize people. Their commands/requests need some kind of legitimacy and backup. They call upon some bigger personality to legitimize and rationalize their commands/requests. Priests were the first to command legitimacy because they claimed to be able to communicate with God. Priests shrouded themselves in songs, dances, rituals and mysteries until people found that the words of priests were rather arbitrary. Belief in those words would be rather superstitious. People demanded something more concrete to meet their rational needs. Then prophets came on stage to be the spokesmen of God. They left behind prophecies, writings of morality and were even able to hand down laws for people to follow. (By the way, Moses was a prophet. See Deuteronomy 18:15) In order to be delivered from bondage, people have to follow the laws which were more tangible than the whims of priests. Fast forward in history, a new class of professionals arose: scribes and Pharisees who were authoritative interpreters of the law. In dealing with conflicts with other communities, people needed leaders to organize and mobilize them. Judges arose to lead them into battles. At first judges were sent and thus legitimized by God. Later, people demanded more opulent leaders similar to leaders of other communities. Kings came on stage. Unfortunately, most kings were inevitably tyrants (1 Samuel 8:11-18). On the other hand, the followers and even dissidents might likewise have learnt to conjure up higher authorities to protect their rights. This is illustrated well in Bible stories.

The Bible tells us of a God who protects the underdogs, the marginalized and the weaklings etc. He stands by the losers to prove that He fights and wins battles for them (Exodus 14:14, Judges 7:2). Now, let’s fast forward to the Age of the Apostles when Jesus had ascended into heaven, sending the Holy Spirit to the early Church to support her. The Apostles were genuinely transformed and proved themselves to be the Patriarchs of the New Israel. They found themselves pitching against the Sanhedran like David fighting against Goliath. The Sanhedran had all the authority and resources they needed to nip the Jesus Movement at the bud. They had successfully eliminated Jesus and it was only a matter of time to round up and neutralize his followers. But to their surprise, the Apostles were formidable rivals because God was on their side. The Sanhedran was only able to mobilize institutionalized forces to arrest, to imprison and to beat the Apostles up. But the Sanhedran knew very well that they were losing ground because the Apostles were gaining popular support and some members of the Sanhedran also showed sympathy towards them. Moreover, the Apostles were able to conjure up God they believed in common to defeat them. “Whether it is right in the sight of God for us to obey you rather than God, you be the judges.” (Acts 4:19) Suddenly, those uneducated fishermen were transformed into eloquent rhetorists! The Jewish authority could only echo the same amazement toward their master whom they had killed as well as those followers in front of them, “What kind of wisdom has been given him and what mighty deeds were worked by his hands!” (Mark 6:2)

Conjuring God could also prod members to toe the official line. Let’s see how the early Church quickly defused schism by seeking the help from God. To begin with, the early Church needed to fill the vacancy left behind by Judas in order to establish themselves as the New Israel. In the process, they lay down the qualifications which 2 candidates could meet. Had the first Christians bought democracy, they would have splintered even before they started their mission. They chose a procedure which was accepted by all: praying before casting lots (Acts 1:24-26)! So, it was God’s will that Matthias took Judas’ place! Another crisis arose when two factions became prominent: Greek speaking Jews and native Jews. In order to avoid schism, again the Apostles called upon the Holy Spirit to help. They delegated authority to seven reputable Greek-speaking believers who were filled with the Spirit and wisdom to take up ministry in the early Church (6:3). Another schism arose when many Gentiles were admitted into this essentially Jewish community. The Church convoked a council in Jerusalem to resolve the conflict. Once more, the Holy Spirit was invoked. They circulated their decision in the form of a letter to various churches concerned. It reads, “It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us not to place on you any burden beyond these necessities …” (15:28) People might wonder how they knew the decision of the Holy Spirit. Well, the Holy Spirit actually spoke to them in other occasions. For example, the Holy Spirit once spoke to the Church in Antioch, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” (13:2) Perhaps nowadays in the modern world, it is getting more difficult to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. But that doesn’t give us any ground to doubt that the Holy Spirit speaks.

There’s another common way to call upon a higher authority to justify one’s cause is to say, “ in the name of ” For example, the Levites were chosen to stand to minister in the name of the Lord (Deuteronomy 18:5), David combatted Goliath in the name of the Lord (1 Samuel 20:42), Elijah built an altar in the name of the Lord to challenge the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:32) and the Jews anticipated the Messiah to come in the name of the Lord to deliver them (Psalms 118:26) etc. Therefore, it is rather surprising to hear Jesus say, “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name --- he will teach you everything …” (John 14:26) and in the same breath, “If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.” (14:28)

How does the Father call upon a lesser authority to justify His action? Here, we need to do a little adjustment. First of all, there is nothing higher/greater than the Father because He is the source of everything visible and invisible. Therefore, He could only appeal to an authority lesser than His but which is higher than the authority of all imaginable creatures. Furthermore, the concept of “greatness” is not applicable to God the same way we apply it to creatures because Jesus has also said, “I and my Father are one.” (John 10:30, 17:22) The Son of God and the Father of God are one. Yet the Father is greater than the Son. This is the mystery of the Blessed Trinity which we’ll never be able to fathom thoroughly.

Brethren! Let’s pray that we do not suffocate dissidents with the authority of God. Let us meditate more on the oneness and greatness of the Blessed Trinity to humble ourselves.
God bless!
2019 Reflection
Picture Credit:open.ac.uk