1 Corinthian 3
The Catholic Church has a monarchical structure. In contrast to modern democratic states in which administrative, legislative, and judicial bodies are independent of one another, in a monarchy, one and the same person either king or queen holds all the powers – the monarch is the chief governor, the supreme lawgiver, and the head judge. The pope and the bishops of local churches exercise these powers as well. In this sense, the pope and the bishops might be called monarchs within their jurisdictions.
The reason why most modern states opted for a democratic government was a serious pitfall of monarchism – a limit of human wisdom of one person. This is why different bodies of governments were developed even under monarchism for efficiency and effectiveness. But what caused the change from monarchism to democracy was the corruption and incompetence of monarchical leadership. When political power is concentrated on one person, it seems unavoidable for the leadership to serve itself only. Then, a revolution follows.
When the Church leadership exercised its power just like a secular monarch, it followed the same fate of monarchs. The local churches were filled with corruption and the faithful were confused and scandalized. Against this danger, St Paul had already warned when the Church was still in infancy, as we heard in the first reading today.
The reason why the Catholic Church still has a monarchical structure is that each head of the local church represents Christ Jesus who is the priest, prophet, and king. And the pope, the successor of Peter, represents the unity of the universal Church and reminds of the singular source of all grace and all teaching – Christ Jesus. These leaders of the Church are for Christ and of Christ. They are not their own. “So let no one boast about human leaders,” St Paul warns us. Let us pray that all our bishops may reject the wisdom of this world but rather embrace the foolishness of God so that they may truly reflect Christ and work for the kingdom of heaven, not of this world.
