Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time                                          01/31/2021
Dt 18: 15-20, 1 Cor 7:32-35, Mk 1: 21-28

 

 

Dear brothers and sisters,

The Authority of Jesus

Today’s gospel reading makes a clear distinction between the teaching of Jesus and that of the Scribes, the official interpreters of the Torah or Law of the Jews. Scribes never expressed their own judgement or opinion. They always began by citing their authority and supported whatever they said with quotes from the great masters of the past. Furthermore, their focus was on the external observances of the Law rather than its spirit. Their teaching failed to make much impression on the people because it lacked the power of personal conviction, of being grounded in experience. Moreover, they did not always practice what they preached to others (cf. Mt 23:3).

The people immediately recognized that Jesus was a different kind of teacher. Mark tells us that ‘his teaching made a deep impression on them, because, unlike the scribes, he taught them with authority’ (Mk 1:22). Why did the teaching of Jesus have such an impact on the People? In what way was it different from the teaching of the scribes? The words of Jesus had the power to move people’s hearts. They had the ring of truth about them because they came from personal experience. Jesus did not just repeat what others had said. He spoke with his own voice, his own authority. The difference between the teaching of Jesus and that of the scribes is captured very well by the great nineteenth century   American philosopher and essayist, Ralph Waldo Emerson, when he wrote: ‘One person speaks from within, or from experience, as a possessor of the fact; another speaks from without, as a spectator, as acquainted with the facts on the evidence of a third person. It is no use to preach to me from without. I can do that for myself.’  Jesus taught with authority because he spoke ‘from within’, not from without.

People listened to Jesus not because he had an official status like the scribes but because he was a living witness to the truth of God’s love. He showed this love by the way he lived. People experienced God’s mercy and compassion in his actions. He reached out to the sick and less privileged, those who were neglected or excluded by society.

The Gospel brings us back again to this them of listening to the Lord.  The people in the Gospel are totally amazed at Jesus and his power over unclean spirits.  They could see that Jesus spoke as a   person having authority on His own.  But did the people of the Gospel follow the Lord? Not always!  Even when the Word of God is right in front of us, we are still able to resist.  God has given us this freedom to choose and so often we choose against God and thus also against ourselves.

Let us pay attention today to the many ways that God comes into our lives.  Let us seek to be faithful to the voice of the Lord as it comes to us in Scripture and in the Church.  Let us pay attention to the things of God and rejoice when God sends us the strength to be faithful.

 

Peace and all good!

Fr. Valery Burusu

Parochial Administrator