Pope Francis speaks often of clericalism as one of the biggest problems the Church has to overcome. Some people, especially some priests, feel that he is too harsh in his criticisms, which they take to be directed against them, and that he is not as supportive of priests as were his two predecessors. But Francis has good precedents for his warnings in the readings today. The prophet Malachi weighs in against the priests who have misled the people, betraying the Lord's covenant. And Jesus in the gospel does the same. Listen to the scribes and Pharisees, he says, and do what they say, but do not follow their example, for there is no consistency between their words and their actions. They are more or less hypocritical: who among us can deny that he is more or less hypocritical?
Consistency between words and actions is one of the features of Jesus's own life which served to give him great authority. Of course there were miracles and exorcisms, also wonderful happenings, which left the people amazed, showed them there was something special going on. But so often we hear simply that 'he taught as one who had authority and not as the scribes and the Pharisees'. In Jesus there is no gap between words and actions but rather complete coherence, consistency, fidelity. In most people there are gaps between words and actions, especially in preachers of the gospel who nevertheless must continue to preach it because even if they do not fully live up to it themselves, perhaps someone listening will be helped to do so.
Jesus speaks of a good shepherd who will take care of his flock to the point of giving his life for it and we know that in his actions he will be this good shepherd. We know that he did in fact give his life for his flock, dying on the cross for the world's salvation. Paul speaks of his own participation in this, in the second reading, feeling like a mother towards the Thessalonians, a disposition which made him ready, following Jesus, to give to them not just his time and his energy but his very life itself.
So Jesus speaks with unique authority about God, about human life, about the way in which we need to live in order to enter into life. His words are convincing because his actions followed perfectly on them. He is our father / mother, our teacher, our guide, the one it is essential for us to come to know.
In the gospel Jesus refers to the scribes and Pharisees 'sitting on the chair of Moses'. There is a lovely phrase in the Christian tradition, mentioned here before, which describes Jesus on the cross sicut magister in cathedra, like a professor on his chair, like a teacher at his lectern, like a preacher in his pulpit. This is his subject, the subject on which he is the world's authority for all time: the truth about God and about humanity, the reality of sin and its consequences, the reality of the divine love revealed in him and which takes away the sins of the world. He is our guide, our teacher, our father / mother, calling us to follow him, to make our actions cohere with our words, and to give our lives, in our turn, in love for our brothers and sisters.
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