Cycle B - Year II:  

28 January 2018: Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time 

(Liturgical Color: Green)

Readings:

First Reading:        Deuteronomy 18:15-20

Second Reading:   1 Corinthians 7:32-35

Gospel:Please Read  Mark 1:21-28

Jesus speaks with authority!

What comes to mind when you hear about "authority"? Power, perhaps, or fame, or money. Because our traditional mind-set is that someone with authority has power to command or give orders, or fame that attracts followers, or money to make things happen.

But that understanding of "authority" can be intimidating, even fearsome. Are you a person in authority, or have you experienced dealing with authorities?

The Gospel narrative this Sunday will change our understanding of "authority".

On the Sabbath day our Lord Jesus entered the synagogue at Capernaum and began to teach. The people were astonished at His teaching for He taught them as one having authority of his own.

Now consider that in Jesus' time teachers of the law didn't speak with their own authority. They usually prefaced their comments with something like, "There is a saying that...." or "Rabbi so-and-so said....."  Recall that even the prophets when they spoke attributed their pronouncements to... "Thus says the Lord...." But our Lord Jesus simply said.."I say to you...."

In other words, Jesus spoke with His own authority, not in the name of another. And that is amazing. Jesus demonstrated His own authority when He commanded even the evil spirits to come out of a possessed man, and the evil spirits obeyed.

Now the people in the synagogue had never seen anything like it. Who would have such authority that even evil spirits have to obey His command?

In truth, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, had all the authority in the world... in the whole universe. Because God created all things through Him and put all things under Him.

But then, Jesus did not use His incomparable authority the way we humans tend to use our little semblance of authority. Because for many humans, authority becomes merely a means of enriching one's self, of getting one's own way even at the expense of others, of suppressing the truth, and of getting and holding the power to keep doing these things.

In sum, the Gospel this Sunday is a lesson about authority. From our Lord's own examples, He uses authority to serve, not to be served. And that is how our Lord Jesus wants us humans to use whatever authority we might have. That is to say, whether our authority is at home, a work, or somewhere else, our Lord Jesus Christ wants us to use it to help others, and never to take advantage of others, or to make ourselves big shots.

A blessed Sunday to us all. And thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!