When Should We Listen to Religious Authority

November 5, 2023

Today’s Gospel has a saying of Jesus that has often been quoted to lay Catholics to demand their obedience in all religious matters:  “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’s seat;  therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it, but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach.”  The meaning fostered by those who demand obedience from lay Catholics is that even if a member of the clergy lives an unworthy life, there is a duty to obey him in all religious  matters because he sits in the seat of Moses, i.e. in a seat of religious authority.

But should we accept this interpretation of this Gospel passage unequivocally?  In fact, the question of religious authority is a question that has become increasingly problematic once non-clergy (women, lay people, and even theologians from other Christian churches) themselves started studying Scripture and Theology, and in our increasingly connected world, started bringing to our attention significant lapses and even ‘false’ teachings offered by priests, bishops and even Popes, both in the past and even in our lifetime.  It is also interesting (and perhaps hypocritical?) that the very conservative group of Catholics (who propagate this understanding of unquestioning obedience to  those in religious authority)  are themselves questioning the Pope, who is their own religious head. And that makes me and them strange bedfellows! 

In any case, this question of obedience to religious authority is a vexing question, particularly in the light of this teaching of Jesus.   

However, as I have explained repeatedly in past reflections, one of the first principles of Scriptural interpretation is that we should not take verses/teachings in isolation.  So we have to look at the entire New Testament before we interpret any one teaching or verse in the Gospels.  And if we look at Jesus’ life, we can see clearly that he himself certainly does NOT follow this interpretation of giving unquestioned obedience to religious authorities. He not only does not do what they do, but clearly disagrees with what the Scribes and Pharisees teach, and offers quite different interpretations of the Scriptures. And if Jesus’ actual practice is not enough to stop us from claiming that his teaching to “do whatever they teach you and follow it” means that we must offer blind obedience,  we also have in today’s Gospel itself, the following teaching: “But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers and sisters. And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father, the one in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah.”  It would seem then that Jesus is saying that we should NOT call anybody our teacher or instructor, and that would include, I presume, all religious authorities, - and that, of course, raises the question as to whether we should accept anybody as a religious authority.

How do we put these two apparently contradictory sets of teachings of Jesus together? Perhaps we can get an insight when we notice in the Gospels that Jesus,  in general and without becoming a slave to them, does faithfully follow the religious rituals, customs and obligations of the Jewish faith to which he belonged.  Thus, he would celebrate the Passover in the way that was prescribed, he would go up to Jerusalem on the prescribed days in a year when a Jewish male was expected to go to the temple, he would participate in the Synagogue and so forth.  And when he is brought before the High Priest during his passion, while he refuses to answer all the accusations made against him, he still obeys and answers when Caiphas asks him a question when he invokes his own religious authority as High Priest.  As Mathew recounts it, when Jesus was brought before the High Priests and the Sanhedrin (Mathew 26:59ff), he refuses to answer any of their accusations and keeps silent. However, when “the high priest said to him, “I put you under oath before the living God, tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.”  Jesus answers.

Another story about the temple tax that all Jewish males were supposed to pay, may also give us some further insight into how Jesus thought.  The temple tax collectors came to Peter and asked him whether his master intended to pay the temple tax. So, “when Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. ’What do you think, Simon?’ he asked. ’From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?’ ‘From others,’ Peter answered. ‘Then the children are exempt,’ Jesus said to him. ’But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours’.” (Matthew 17:24-27) Here we have Jesus giving in to a rule of the religious establishment for the sake of not creating an unnecessary issue in the community.  

So is Jesus himself making a distinction between what I have in past reflections referred to as the ‘vertical’ and ‘horizontal’ elements of any religion.  The ‘vertical’ aspects refer to those religious practices which are related to our ‘direct’ engagement with God - and would include all sacraments, rituals, prayers, ascetic practices, vows, etc, - while the ‘horizontal’ aspects would refer to those which are related to our ‘direct’ engagement with our neighbour - whether it be in how we earn our living, how we deal with those who are discriminated against for religious or other reasons, what stances we choose to take in wars and political events in our own country and in the world, etc.  This distinction parallels Jesus’ response to the scribe who asked him which is the greatest commandment, when he answers by quoting both a ‘vertical’ and ‘horizontal’ dimension:‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

I have already spoken frequently in past reflections on matters related to the ‘horizontal’ aspects of our faith calling, and so here I will reflect only on the matters related to the ‘vertical’ aspects. In the case of ‘vertical’ aspects, as Jesus has shown, for the sake of ‘order’ (i.e. in order to respect those who have been legitimately appointed as religious authorities), or sometimes just to avoid giving unnecessary offence to others, we too should ordinarily obey.  However, when we begin to have doubts about whether a teaching regarding a ‘vertical’ practice goes against the ‘horizontal’ demands of our faith, then we would need to review such a practice/teaching with a fomed conscience (see “Should I follow the Church teaching or my conscience?” Blog of July 30, 2023, ).  Jesus shows this quite clearly in his life, notably in his adherence, or lack of adherence, to the vertical practice of keeping the Sabbath holy and not working on a Sabbath, or again when he throws the merchants out of the temple courtyards even though they were licensed to be there to help the Jews to fulfil prescribed religious observances (vertical practices). As Jesus never tires of repeating, the Sabbath was made for human beings and not the other way around.  Therefore, in such cases, where the teaching of a religious authority enjoins a ‘vertical’ practice that does not adhere to the demands of the horizontal Gospel call, obedience need not, and even should not, be given.   

And lest we think that only Jesus had the freedom to challenge the teaching of religious authorities, because he was after all the Messiah, the Son of Man, the Son of God or whatever other title we wish to give him, a careful reading of the New Testament will show us that even though the Apostles and the early Christians followed the traditions and rules of the Jewish faith, even they felt free to challenge the religious authorities at times. So as the story goes in Acts 5: 17ff) : “And the high priest asked them, saying: ‘Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this Man’s blood on us!’. But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: ‘We ought to obey God rather than men’.”  Furthermore, even with regard to other ‘vertical’ practices,  the Apostles initially followed these practices as they lived like good Jews, until they further reflected and found that some practices did not sit well with their new beliefs, as happened in the decision to drop circumcision for Gentile converts (Galatians 2:11-14).

Paul gives us yet another reason to ‘obey’ the laws enjoined by religious authorities.  In his first letter to the Corinthians (9:19-20) he writes: Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 

The reality is that there are always those in religious authority who have fallen away from Jesus’ teaching whilst still outwardly following the rules of the religious institution - and perhaps there always will be. But this is not new, or only limited to the Christian faith, as this is found in all religious groups. In fact, today’s first reading speaks of the same problem when referring to Jewish priests: “And now, you priests, this warning is for you. If you do not listen, and if you do not resolve to honor my name,” says the Lord Almighty, “I will send a curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them,  But you have turned from the way and by your teaching have caused many to stumble; you have violated the covenant with Levi,” says the Lord Almighty. “So I have caused you to be despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not followed my ways but have shown partiality in matters of the law.”

This problem of an unworthy religious authority is the problem of any institution (religious, or otherwise), and, according to me, is more likely to happen when leadership is given (e.g. where people are ordained and appointed based primarily on their passing a set of courses in a seminary and based on the good report of the seminary authorities) rather than earning their leadership role in the ‘real’ world through a life filled with demonstrated commitment to the Gospel values.  

It seems to me that we could apply the following words of Gibran to such unworthy religious authorities:

What shall I say of these, save that they too stand in the sunlight, but with their backs to the sun.  

They see only their own shadows, and their shadows are their laws.  And what is the sun to them but a caster of shadows? 

And what is it to acknowledge the laws but to stoop down and trace their shadows on the earth? 

But you who walk facing the sun, what images drawn on the earth can hold you? 

You who travel with the wind, what weathervane shall direct your course?

Religious authority surely does have a place, but it is not meant to control our ability to look at the sun ourselves, and together with the eyes of others who are also trying to walk the same path,  discover what it means, as the Apostles said, to obey God rather than human beings.  

First Reading: Malachi 1: 14b – 2: 2b, 8-10

For I am a great king,” says the Lord Almighty, “and my name is to be feared among the nations.

“And now, you priests, this warning is for you. If you do not listen, and if you do not resolve to honor my name,” says the Lord Almighty, “I will send a curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them,  But you have turned from the way and by your teaching have caused many to stumble; you have violated the covenant with Levi,” says the Lord Almighty. “So I have caused you to be despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not followed my ways but have shown partiality in matters of the law.” Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our ancestors by being unfaithful to one another?

 

Second Reading: First Thessalonians 2: 7b-9, 13

But we were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.

You remember our labor and toil, brothers and sisters; we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. We also constantly give thanks to God for this, that when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, God's word, which is also at work in you believers. 

Gospel: Matthew 23: 1-12

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’s seat;  therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it, but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others, but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. They do all their deeds to be seen by others, for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to have people call them rabbi. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers and sisters. And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father, the one in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.