Authority Ordered by Love

In the modern Western world, we carry a strong cultural bias toward a particular idea of equality. Too often, this is understood to mean that no one may stand above another in any meaningful way. Authority itself becomes suspect. Yet today’s readings present us with a strikingly different vision. God establishes an order within the family, placing the father in honor over his children.

Our culture often suspects authority because it has seen authority abused. Yet the answer to abuse is not the rejection of authority, but its purification. Authority without love hardens into tyranny, while love without authority dissolves into sentimentality. God’s ordering of the family preserves both, directing authority toward the good of those who are loved.

This ordering is not arbitrary. Both father and mother are set over their children for the children’s own good. Children require guidance, not only in physical matters, but in spiritual ones as well. A good father is one who truly loves his children. He desires their good, acts to bring it about, and willingly sacrifices himself for their sake.

Earthly fathers, of course, do not love perfectly. They often fall short of the ideal revealed in God the Father. Yet Scripture teaches that children preserve themselves through honoring their father, not because he is flawless, but because he loves them. Honor is not blind approval. It is a recognition of the role God has given and the love that ought to animate it.

At the same time, fathers are held to a serious responsibility. They are called to lead, not to dominate. They are warned not to provoke their children, but to raise them in love and discipline ordered toward God. Authority in the family is never meant to crush. It is meant to serve.

When we look more closely, we see that the family is meant to be a work of harmony, a shared labor of love. Everything within the household is to be done in the name of the Lord. Even the often misunderstood language of wives being subject to husbands is not about domination. It is about love. It is the subordination of one’s own desires to the good of the other. This demand cuts both ways. Husbands are commanded to love their wives as Christ loved the Church, even unto death.

Saint Joseph embodies this love with quiet clarity. He took his responsibility seriously, risking his life for Mary and for the Child entrusted to him. Jesus was not his natural son, yet Joseph chose to love Him. By adopting Him, Joseph made Him truly his own.

In ancient Israel, adoption made a child a full member of the family, entitled to full inheritance. Joseph therefore gave Jesus everything he had. He also accepted great risk, as the king sought the Child’s life. In doing so, Joseph demonstrated the kind of love to which we are all called.

Through Joseph, we catch a small glimpse of God’s love for us. Joseph accepted responsibility without benefit to himself. He was willing to suffer for the sake of another. Though he speaks no words in Scripture, his actions reveal a profound love and fidelity.

For God loved us into existence, suffered for our redemption, and never abandons us.

Therefore, we are called to honor our earthly parents, to pray for them, and to offer ourselves in love. Parents, in turn, are called to give themselves fully for their children. The family, when it functions rightly, becomes a living image of heaven itself. It teaches us how to love God and love our neighbor through a love that is permanent, faithful, and fruitful, because God’s love is.

In the end, love is the only thing that truly matters.