When he had come into the temple area, the chief priests and the elders of the people approached him as he was teaching and said, "By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority?" Jesus said to them in reply, " I shal ask you one question, and if you answer it for me, then I shall tell you by what authority I do these things. Where was John's baptism from? Was it heavenly or human origin?" They discussed this among themselves and said, "If we say, 'Of heavenly origin' he will say to us, 'Then why did you not believe him?' But if we say, 'Of human origin,' we fear the crowd, for they all regard John as a prophet. " So they said to Jesus in reply, "We do no know." He himself said to them, "Neither shall I tell you by what authority I do these things."
In other Words
We cannot please everybody. Indeed, no matter how much we do our best and no matter how good our intentions are, we still find people who cannot even express a simple appreciation for what we are doing.
In the Gospel for today, Jesus encountered another challenge to his authority from his "favorite" dialogue partners - the Jewish leaders. We have to understand that during the time of Jesus the culture of honor and shame was very strong. Honor was a highly sought-after good. This was one reason why the Jewish leaders didn't enjoy Jesus being around. As Jesus gained reputation, they themselves were losing it. As a line of defense to uphold their own reputation, they had to question Jesus' identity and challenge his authority in public.
Jesus was very much aware of this. In fact, he used the same weapon against his adversaries. Knowing the intention of the Jewish leaders, he posed a challenging question that put them into a dilemma. He turned the table on the Jewish leaders. The burden of securing honor was now on their shoulder. Since they could not afford to be humiliated in front of the crowd, they had to choose whether to be truthful or to take the safer course and lie; they chose the latter. Their ego led them to compromise what was true on this pretext, "We do not know."
Often in our lives we are faced with a similar dilemma, and then we compromise the truth. In our desire to always look good, envious of what others have done, greedy for power, wanting to get praise and honor, we end up guarding ourselves at the expense of others. Worse, we compromise what is true and settle with the safer course of self-preference.
Jesus, in this season of Advent, is challenging us, first, to stay grounded and humble, and recognize the goodness of each other. Goodness is not to be monopolized; rather, it is to be acknowledged and shared. Then, as Christians, we are to stay truthful no matter what. Truth is not to b compromised but to be lived and proclaimed in daily life.
- Fr. Mark Angelo M. Ramos, SVD (DWS-Tagaytay)
