SUBMISSION TO AUTHORITY

First Friday TeachingSeptember 4, 2009

OBJECTIVES:

At the end of the session, the participants will be able to:

• understand what submission to authority is;

• understand why there is a need to live submission to authority;

• identify different behavioral manifestations of submission to authority; and,

• examine how they live submission to authority.

OUR COMMITMENTS

I dedicate myself to the following:A. I WILL LIVE AS A FOLLOWER OF CHRIST

3. I will participate regularly in the worship life of my Church.

B. I WILL MAKE MYSELF AVAILABLE TO THE LORD FOR SERVICE5. As a member of the BCBP, I will follow the directives of those who have responsibility over my service.

THE COMMUNAL CHARACTER OF OUR VOCATION

All men are called to the same end: God himself. There is a certain resemblance between the union of the divine persons and the fraternity that men are called to establish among themselves in truth and love. Love of neighbor is inseparable from love for God.

(Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1878)

“It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a suitable companion to help him.”

Gen 2:18

“I believe in life everlasting”: To live in heaven is “to be with Christ”. Heaven is the blessed community of all who are perfectly incorporated into Christ.

CCC , 1025-1026

NATURE OF SOCIETY

The human person needs to live in society. A society is a group of persons bound together organically by a principle of unity that goes beyond each one of them.

(CCC 1880)

UNITY OF ORDER

In Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.”

(Romans12:5-6)

UNITY OF ORDER consists in: (a) subordination of ranks according to

authority; and, (b) interdependence of all its members.

UNITY WITH THE POPE

Unity is not the result of human policies or hidden mysterious intentions. Instead, unity springs from the conversion of the heart, and from sincere acceptance of the unchanging principles laid down by Christ for his Church. Particularly important among these principles is the effective communion of all the parts of the Church with her visible foundation: Peter, the Rock.

Pope John Paul II WYD1995

ON THIS ROCK, I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH

…[Y]ou are now citizens together with God’s people and members of the family of God. You, too, are built upon the foundation laid by the apostles and prophets, the cornerstone being Christ Jesus himself.

(Ephesians 2:19-20)

PURPOSE OF SOCIETY

By means of society, each man is established as an “heir” and receives certain “talents” that enrich his identity and whose fruits he must develop. He rightly owes loyalty to the communities of which he is part, and respect to those in authority who have charge of the common good.

CCC,1880

COMMON GOOD: GOAL OF SOCIETY & AUTHORITY

By common good is to be understood “the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily.” The common good concerns the life of all. It calls for prudence from each, and even more from those who exercise the office of authority.

CCC, 1906.

WHERE DOES AUTHORITY COME FROM?

WHERE DOES AUTHORITY COME FROM?

Moses heard all the people complaining as they stood around in groups at the entrances of their tents. He was distressed because the Lord had become angry with them, and he said to the Lord, “Why have you treated me so badly? Why are you displeased with me? Why have you given me the responsibility for all these people? I didn’t create them or bring them to birth! Why should you ask me to act like a nurse and carry them in my arms like babies all the way to the land you promised to their ancestors? Where could I get enough meat for all these people? They keep whining and asking for meat. I can’t be responsible for all these people by myself; it’s too much for me! If you are going to treat me like this, have pity on me and kill me, so that I won’t have to endure your cruelty any longer.”

The Lord said to Moses, “Assemble seventy respected men who are recognized as leaders of the people, bring them to me at the Tent of my presence, and tell them to stand there beside you. I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the spirit I have given you and give it to them. Then they can help you bear the responsibility for these people, and you will not have to bear it alone.

Now tell the people, ‘Purify yourselves for tomorrow; you will have meat to eat. The Lord has heard you whining and saying that you wished you had some meat to eat and that you were better off in Egypt. Now the Lord will give you meat, and you will have to eat it. You will have to eat it not just for one or two days, or five, or ten, or even twenty days, but for a whole month, until it comes out of your ears, until you are sick of it. This will happen because you have rejected the Lord who is here among you and have complained to him that you should never have left Egypt.’”

Moses said to the Lord, “Here I am leading 600,000 people, and you say that you will give them enough meat for a month? Could enough cattle and sheep be killed to satisfy them? Are all the fish in the sea enough for them.?”

“Is there a limit to my power?” the Lord answered. “You will soon see whether what I have said will happen or not!”

So Moses went out and told the people what the Lord had said. He assembled seventy of the leaders and placed them around the Tent. Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him. He took some of the spirit he had given to Moses and gave it to the seventy leaders. When the spirit came on them, they began to shout like prophets, but not for long.

Two of the seventy leaders, Eldad and Medad, had stayed in the camp and had not gone out to the Tent. There in the camp the spirit came on them, and they too began to shout like prophets.

(Numbers 11:10—30)

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy God sent the angel Gabriel to a town in Galilee named Nazareth. He had a message for a young woman promised in marriage to a man named Joseph, who was a descendant of King David. Her name was Mary. The angel came to her and said, “Peace be with you! The Lord is with you and has greatly blessed you!”

WHERE DOES AUTHORITY COME FROM?

Mary was deeply troubled by the angel’s message, and she wondered what his words meant. The angel said to her, “Don’t be afraid, Mary; God has been gracious to you. You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High God. The Lord God will make him a king, as his ancestor David was, and he will be the king of the descendants of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end!

Mary said to the angel, “I am a virgin. How, then can this be?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and God’s power will rest upon you. For this reason the holy Child will be called the Son of God.”

(Luke 1:26-35)

Then heaven was opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God coming down like a dove and lighting on him. Then a voice said from heaven, “This is my own dear Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

(Matthew 3:16-17)

ALL AUTHORITY COMES FROM GOD

God has not willed to reserve to himself all exercise of power. He entrusts to every creature the functions it is capable of performing, according to the capacities of its own nature. This mode of governance ought to be followed in social life. The way God acts in governing the world, which bears witness to such great regard for human freedom, should inspire the wisdom of those who govern human communities. They should behave as ministers of divine providence.

ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE AUTHORITY – RESISTANCE

Moses had married a Cushite woman, and Miriam and Aaron criticized him for it. They said, “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses? Hasn’t he also spoken through us?” The Lord heard what they said. (Moses was a humble man, more humble than anyone else on earth.)

Suddenly the Lord said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “I want the three of you to come out to the Tent of my presence.” They went, and the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud, stood at the entrance of the Tent, and called out, “Aaron! Miriam!” The two of them stepped forward, and the Lord said, “Now hear what I have to say! When there are prophets among you, I reveal myself to them in visions and speak to them in dreams. It is different when I speak with my servant Moses; I have put him in charge of all my people Israel. So I speak to him face-to-face, clearly and not in riddles; he has even seen my form! How dare you speak against my servant Moses?”

ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE AUTHORITY – RESISTANCE

The Lord was angry with them; and so as he departed and the cloud left the Tent, Miriam’s skin was suddenly covered with a dreaded disease and turned as white as snow. When Aaron looked at her and saw that she was covered with the disease, he said to Moses, “Please, sir, do not make us suffer this punishment for our foolish sin. Don’t let her become like something born dead with half its flesh eaten away.”

So Moses cried out to the Lord, “O God, heal her!”

REASONS FOR RESISTANCE TO AUTHORITY

1. To avoid responsibility (Numbers 11: 10-15)

2. A false notion of humility (Judges 5:11-16)

3. A reaction to a previous culture (John 6:51-58)

4. Pride (Mk 6:1-3) (MK 7:5-13)

So the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law asked Jesus, “Why is it that your disciples do not follow the teaching handed down by our ancestors, but instead eat with ritually unclean hands?” Jesus answered them, ”How right Isaiah was when he prophesied about you! You are hypocrites, just as he wrote:

‘These people, says God, honor me with their words, but their heart is really far away from me. It is no use for them to worship me, because they teach human rules as though they were my laws!’ “You put aside God’s command and obey human teachings.”

Mk 7:5-13

“ My child, if you don’t give up your own judgment, if you are proud, if you devote yourself to ‘your’ apostolate, you will work all night – your whole life will be one long night – and at the end of it all the dawn will find you with your nets empty.”

St. Josemaria Escriva, The Forge, 574.

• Submission is yielding to another’s desires without resistance. Submission to another’s wishes is an attitude of the heart done willingly.

• Our first submission should be unto the Lord. “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” (Matthew 22:37)

ATTITUDE TOWARDS AUTHORITY – SUBMISSION

1. To parents – Ephesians 6:1-42. Between husband & wife – Ephesians

5:21-33; Col.3:18 – 193. To church elders – 1 Peter 5:54. To government authorities – Matthew

17:24- 27; Romans 13:1 5. To business authorities – Col. 3:22, 4:1

SUBMISSION TO AUTHORITIES

SUBMISSION TO BCBP AUTHORITIES

1. To obey directives, policies and rules established by the BCBP leadership.

2. To cooperate and assist the leadership of the BCBP

3. To be involved and if required, to respectfully disagree with their leader’s position

4. To be open to corrections and admonishments in what relates to the BCBP culture

5. To care and support our BCBP leaders.

MARY: MODEL OF SUBMISSION She is that good instrument, completely identified with the

mission received. Once she learns of God’s plan, she makes it her own. Her plans are not something added on. In the just fulfillment of these plans, she completely disposes her intelligence and will and all her energies. She is never an inert puppet: not when she sets out joyfully through the mountains of Judaea to visit her cousin Elizabeth; not when truly exercizing her duty as mother, she seeks and finds the Child Jesus in the temple of Jerusalem; not when she causes our Lord’s first miracle; not when she appears – without being called – at the foot of the Cross on which her Son died… By saying ‘Be it done’ she freely disposes her entire person to the fulfillment of her calling. This calling does not seem foreign to her: God’s interests are her own interests. She does not run the risk that Her plans might pose an obstacle to the plans of God; her plans are perfectly identified with his.

(In Conversation with God, Francis Fernandez, vol. IV, p. 332)

“If you are one of those who launch out into the deep, set the course straight and firm… If you give yourself to God give yourself the way the saints did. Let no one and nothing occupy your attention and slow you down: you belong to God. If you give yourself, you give yourself for eternity. Let neither the roaring waves nor the treacherous undercurrent shake the concrete solidity of your foundations. God depends on you: He leans on you. Put all your energy into and row against the current… ‘Duc in altum’. Launch out into the deep waters with the daring of those others who loved Christ.”

Jesus Urteaga, Man the Saint, pp.130- 131

SUMMARY

1. We are called not only to believe but to belong.2. Society, like the human person, has its end in

God.3. God bestows authority in some persons so that

they can direct those under them towards attainment of the common good.

4. In the BCBP, submission to authority is a way of life.

5. Submission to authority must be animated by love and manifested through openness, obedience and active support to our leaders.

AREAS FOR EXAMINATION:

1. Do I pray for those in authority: the Pope, the bishop, the clergy, the government leaders, BCBP leaders?

2. Jesus said: “On this Rock, I will build my church” . Peter’s successor, the Pope is the visible head of the Church. Am I united to the Pope?

3. The Church “belongs to God”; it is the “People of God”. Do I participate regularly in the worship life of the Church?

4. As a BCBP member, do I follow the directives of those who have responsibility over my service?

5. Do I preserve unity in BCBP? How?

ADDITIONAL READINGS

1. Chapter 17, “A Place to Belong,” The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren.

2. The Human Community, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1877-1912.

3. “The Power of Obedience”, In Conversation with God, Francis Fernandez, vol. IV, pp.537-542.