4th Sunday in Ordinary Time
This week we have been taking part in Catholic Schools week, over these days we have been celebrating what it means to be a catholic school. This year with the schools closed there have been a number of celebrations online as most of the learning at home has been online and we pray for our teachers, parents, grandparents and the young people that make up our school communities. For all our young people and their parents this past year has been a tough one but we should not forget that things will get better as we go forward and we pray for all those involved in education wherever they are.
in this Sundays Gospel we hear about the authority of the Lord to cast out demons and devils. The reading is taken from the Gospel of Mark. As Jesus begins to teach in Capernaum. The people are spellbound because he spoke with authority, not like the scribes. A man comes to Jesus who is in the hand of an evil power and Jesus makes the devil come out of the man. The bystanders are amazed because Jesus has such authority. What do we mean when we speak about the authority of the Lord? What do we mean when we talk about authority in general? What ways do we exercise authority in relation to those around us? What ways do we exercise the authority of the Lord as Christians? The word authority comes from the Latin word auctoritas. The basic meaning of this Latin word is creator, the word author also comes from this word. In general, authority is intimately connected with its source that source is the person who gives another the authority to do something so the authority that Jesus has comes from his Father. Jesus, speaks for God through his divine nature. His entire public life was about compassion and mercy. He despised arrogance, fought hypocrisy, and he believed the heart was stronger than the law. He brought God’s mercy compassion and love to the earth and in the process brought us forgiveness from our self-interest, our scapegoating, our manipulation of frayed emotions, and our insecurity in the face of diversity of language, race, and nationality. Are we going to ignore the calling of Jesus to be prophets in our own place or will we step up and be the prophets of god for our own time here and now where we are? Recent events in America show us that we need prophets for our time people who are not afraid to stand up and be counted when it comes to pointing out the errors that people make as they need to hear us speak truth to power. We are truly prophets when we stand for the truth, for the marginalized, for the alien, for the victim of war, for the victims of capitalism that serves only the capitalist when it should serve everyone. We are stronger when we show that there is another way and that way is the way of forgiveness it is the way of compassion and it is the way of love that comes to us from god the authority for all we do and say as people of faith hope and love we who are the people of god.
When we find ourselves depressed by the evil we see in others, perhaps we best hear the authoritative teaching of Jesus when we hear it as a call to conversion of heart mind and spirit bringing God’s mercy compassion and love to the people around us as well as ourselves. If that call seems to touch us when we are at our weakest, let us be encouraged that such weakness is an opening for God’s healing and liberating power so let us be the prophets of gods healing in our broken world a world that needs healing more than ever these days of the uncertainty that comes with COVID19 and many other things and people as well.
Fullerton T 