True authority leads to humility

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Memorial of St. Albert the Great, Doctor of the Church, 15 November 2023
Wisdom 6:1-11   ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*>   Luke 17:11-19

Thank you dear God
for the gift of authority,
a share in your authority 
to govern other people regardless
if they are a few or a handful of
loosely organized people like
family and friends
or a large number of subjects
in our work or organization,
community and the Church,
and the whole nation.

But most especially,
we pray for our civil and 
Church people of authority
to heed your counsel:

To you therefore O princes are my words addressed that you may learn wisdom and that you may not sin. For those who keep the holy precepts hallowed shall be found holy, and those learned in them will have ready a response. Desire therefore my words; long for them and you shall be instructed.

Wisdom 6:9-11

You have sent us your Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ as the
perfect example of authority figure,
who spoke with authority during his time
because his authority is a sharing
in your authority, Father,
an expression of his perfect 
obedience to you; 
let us realize that every authority 
must be lived in total obedience
to you, O God, like Jesus.

When authority is lived in obedience,
those in authority become humble,
getting closer to their subjects
especially those in the margins
like the weak and the sick;
the Samaritan leper was the only one
who returned to Jesus to thank him
because not only because 
he was the least of the ten
lepers being an outsider;
but, most of all, he humbly
and gratefully returned to thank Jesus
because he lived his obedience with
authority, Jesus whom he called Master.

Like St. Albert the Great
whose feast we celebrate today,
patron of scientists and a man
of learning and wisdom who held 
great authority in his Order
and in the Church in Germany 
during his time, may we always
live our authority in obedience
and live obedience with authority
to lead us all into humility
like Jesus Christ.
Amen.