Cycle B - Year I:  

31 January 2021: 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 the word "authority"?  Most likely power, 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.

That kind of 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 challenges our traditional understanding of "authority".

The Gospel narrative: On the Sabbath day our Lord Jesus Christ 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 in the time of our Lord Jesus, teachers of the law didn't speak with their own authority.  They usually prefaced their statements 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...." In contrast, our Lord Jesus Christ simply said "I say to you...."    

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

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

Now we know that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has all the authority in the word... in the whole universe.  Because God created all things through Him and put all things under Him.

And yet, Jesus did not use His incomparable authority the way humans tend to use their little semblance  of authority.  Notice that for many of us, authority becomes a means of enriching ourselves, of getting our own way even at the expense of others, of suppressing the truth, and of getting and holding on to power to keep doing these things.

It is not the same with Jesus.  He teaches us that "authority" is service and love, and not to intimidate others out of fear. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. And the Son loved us so much that He waited patiently and tirelessly for our salvation. 

In reality we are God's servants but God wants His servants to willingly and joyfully became His children.  Because God wants us to come to Him, not as slaves or subjects, but as His children.  

So in sum, the Gospel teaches us a different understanding about authority.  From our Lord's own examples, He uses authority to serve and not to be served.  This is how our Lord Jesus wants us to use whatever authority we might have.  That is to say, whether our authority is at home, at work, or somewhere else, our Lord Jesus wants us to use it to help others, and never to take advantage of others, or to make ourselves the "big shots" with our little authority.

The Church proclaims this Sunday as Pro-Life Sunday.  Let us do our share to promote, affirm, and respect the dignity and sacredness of human life, just as we also experience our Lord Jesus Christ's life-giving love for us, sinners.

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

Ad Jesum per Mariam!