3 September 2019
Memorial of St. Gregory the Great, Pope
“He taught them on the sabbath, and they were astonished at his teaching because he spoke with authority.” (Luke 4:31) Jesus’ teaching astonishes. It does not simply inspire or please or inform those who hear, His teaching amazes them. He seeks with a more than human authority, which would simply try to manipulate or control others. Instead, the One who creates us, who redeems us, who sanctifies us, this is the One whose authority we hear in the preaching of Christ. To be in the presence of that One, to hear His words, should indeed shock those accustomed to merely mundane authorities.
When we seek to be aware constantly of His Presence in our lives, we learn to exercise the authority with which we are entrusted in a more proper manner. We begin to see it as an instrument to serve and to build others (since that is what Christ does with His authority). We see that we are not set over others as better than them, but instead we acknowledge that we are all equally children of the same Father. We learn to seek out those whom our resources and gifts may benefit, since, again, that is precisely how our heavenly Father relates to us.
In St. Gregory, we find an example of one who governed the Church entrusted to his care with humble reverence before God. He did not seek authority, but had actually left an important political office to become a monk, to spend his days in quiet prayer and service. When called upon by the pope, Gregory left the tranquillity of the monastery to serve as the pope’s ambassador in Constantinople for years. Upon his return to Italy and the death of the pope, the Church sought to make him pope, when all he wanted was to return to the quiet of the monastery. However, he submitted to their demands, and in the midst of the suffering of moral corruption and physical famine that was around the Italy of his time, he humbly devoted all his efforts to feeding and admonishing his brothers and sisters. Through his intercession may we have the humility to answer Christ’s call to serve, and the reverence to serve His People according to His example.