All power in Heaven and on Earth belongs solely to God, who has deemed certain individuals worthy to occupy positions of power on His behalf. As we learn throughout the history of Israel and the nation’s kings, those who attempt to usurp power when God has not given them that power are doomed to be struck down. But just because God has chosen for some to be those in power, like Joash in this passage, does not mean that every action they do is a reflection of a divinely-inspired reign. Just as we are capable of sinning as followers of Christ, those who reign by the will of God are susceptible to failing in their duties to uphold God’s will.

In the case of Joash, he disappointingly gets swept up by the things of this world; as he turns away from honoring God, he leads his people to abandon God, as well. Those who challenge him and call him to repentance, specifically Zechariah, are put to death. When we read about the history of the Kingdom of Israel, we may recoil for two reasons: first, the people of Israel and especially their leaders are frustratingly wicked when they know better than anyone else what it entails to be people of God. Second, we become frustrated reading about the Israelites because they are so similar to us, both as individuals and as a Church. When we consider the leadership of the Kingdom of Israel, we can easily see the correlation between their God-given authority and the God-given authority of the leadership of the Catholic Church. This is especially true for our Pope, our bishops, our own priests, and the roles they occupy in guiding the faithful. Each one, we pray, was called by God to be these leaders. A vocation to the priesthood is not a mere career path, but a unique journey to knowing, loving, and serving God by knowing, loving, and serving His Mystical Body in the Church community. Nothing is more lovely than to see these men prostrate themselves on the day of their ordinations, to be embraced by their bishops, to be anointed as those worthy of offering the sacrifice of the Mass. When those few among these men are called to be bishops and ordained as such, the gravity of the situation is that much more intense and solemn; these are the select who are called to occupy the positions of the Apostles. Every bit of their power finds its origin solely in God, because it was God who called them, God who inspired those who chose them, God who ordains them as shepherds.

What do these men do with the power given to them by God? They become representatives of their people, leading their communities in the direction they choose. Unfortunately, some priests and bishops choose to lead their communities astray. Some fall into schism, some fall into apathy and laziness, some fall into corruption. As Pope Pius IX brilliantly said in his first encyclical, “people tend generally to be of the same quality as their priests.” The Kings of Israel and the priests who held power in the worship of the Israelites made the same choices the leadership of the Catholic Church make today - some lead their people to holiness, others may lead their people astray. In both cases, though, their power still originates from God. What they do with that power is chosen through their own free will. God allows the consequences of our actions to serve as their own punishment or reward; Joash led his people to death at the hand of the Arameans and lost his own life as a result. Pray that those who have power given to them by God, especially in our Church, use that power to know, love, and serve Him, and to forego heresy, apathy, and corruption.