The Gospel for Monday of the third week of Advent is taken from Matthew 21:23, 27th verse. When Jesus had come into the temple area, the chief priests and the elders of the people approached him as he was teaching and said, by what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority? Jesus said to them in reply, I shall ask you one question, and if you answer it for me, I shall tell you by what authority I do these things. Where was John’s baptism from? Was it heavenly or of human origin?

They discussed this among themselves and said, if we say of heavenly origin, he will say to us, then why did you not believe in him? But if we say on human origin, we fear the crowd as they all regard John as a prophet. So they said to Jesus in reply, we do not know. He himself said to them, neither shall I tell you by what authority I do these things. It’s easy to see why Jesus was in conflict with the leaders of the temple. They were hypocrites, and one of their great mistakes is clearly shown in this passage.

For Jesus makes it clear that they’re not interested in truth, but only in manipulating things so that they work out in favor of them. It underscores for all of us, anytime we drift from the truth, we’re in trouble. We’re likely to find ourselves in a place that we never wanted to be. We’re likely to be doing things we never thought we would do. It’s so essential that we just say one thing to God over and over again. Tell me what is true.

Show me what is true. Let me live out what is true. After your reflection, I will close with a prayer. Foreign. Closing prayer. Father, we get lost.

We get so many things in our heads all day long. Bless us with a clarity about one single thing. The only thing that is important, the only true authority in our life is whatever is true. And we grow in consciousness over generation after generation to see and to feel that truth. Bless us with the fruit of that work. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.