Gospel Reading : Mark 11:27-33
And they came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him, and they 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 will ask you a question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.
Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men? Answer me.” And they argued with one another, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But shall we say, ‘From men’?”—they were afraid of the people, for all held that John was a real prophet.
So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
What do the Fathers say?
St THEOPHYLACT. They were angry with the Lord, for having cast out of the temple those who had made it a place of merchandize, and therefore they come up to Him, to question and tempt Him.
“By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?”
Further, they said this, thinking to bring Him to judgment, so that if He said, by my own power, they might lay hold of Him; but if He said, by the power of another, they might make the people leave Him, for they believed Him to be God.
But the Lord asks them concerning John, not without a reason, because John had borne witness of Him.
The Venerable BEDE. And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say, Why then did you not believe him? As if He had said, He whom you confess to have had his prophecy from heaven bore testimony of Me, and ye have heard from him, by what authority I do these things.
But if we shall say, Of men; they feared the people. They saw then that whatever they answered, they should fall into a snare; fearing to be stoned, they feared still more the confession of the truth.
“Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
As if He had said, I will not tell you what I know, since you will not confess what you know.
Further, we must observe that knowledge is hidden from those who seek it, principally for two reasons, namely, when he who seeks for it either has not sufficient capacity to understand what he seeks for, or when through contempt for the truth, or some other reason, he is unworthy of having that for which he seeks opened to him.
Sources:
Bible readings from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Second Catholic Edition, copyright © 2006 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Quotes of the Fathers from Thomas Aquinas’ Catena Aurea Translated by St John Henry Newman
Artwork ex Wikimedia Commons