Gospel: Mark
11:27-33
Jesus and
his disciples returned once more to Jerusalem. As he was walking in the temple
area, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders approached him and said to
him, “By what authority are you doing these things? Or who gave you this
authority to do them?” Jesus said to them, “I shall ask you one question. Answer
me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was John’s baptism
of heavenly or of human origin? Answer me.” They discussed this among themselves
and said, “If we say, ‘Of heavenly origin,’ he will say, ‘Then why did you not
believe him?’ But shall we say, ‘Of human origin’?”– they feared the crowd, for
they all thought John really was a prophet. So they said to Jesus in reply, “We
do not know.” Then Jesus said to them, “Neither shall I tell you by what
authority I do these things.”
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Reflection:
Who are
the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders?
They are
persons of authority they are all highly valued and listened by their
community. Jesus was actually no match to them in stature for He just an ordinary Jew and a carpenter. That’s why they’ve asked Him: “By what authority
are you doing these things?
What was
their motivation in asking Jesus about His authority? Of course their
motivation was envy and greed for power because they were slowly being
threatened by the growing popularity of Jesus.
Otherwise if they were not envious and greedy they would have not asked Jesus about His authority.
This same
envy and greed for power drove them to plot the killing of Jesus.
We too
are often times envious of those who succeed, those who are more popular than
us. Why do we allow ourselves to be eaten-up by this negative emotion called
envy?
Instead
of feeling envious why not just be happy for those people who succeed? – Marino
J. Dasmarinas
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