Authority.
It’s a word with which we may be a little uncomfortable. If I’m being honest, it used to make me very uncomfortable. The idea of anyone having the authority over me to dictate what I could and couldn’t do, the infringement on my freedoms to choose what I wanted for myself.
It wasn’t until I found the Catholic Church that I realized that authority can be something else. It can be the guardrails keeping me from veering too close to the edge of heresy, it can be loving guidance when I can’t understand but with all my heart I wish to. Authority can be the strength, the bulwark, to hold fast against the torrents of lies and hate that can fill our daily lives.
Today’s gospel touches on exactly that authority. Jesus is in Capernaum teaching at the synagogue. It is here that His intrinsic authority is revealed. A man possessed with an unclean spirit approaches Jesus at the synagogue, crying out “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.”
This is where we see clearly the identity of Christ, the Holy One of God, proclaimed from the lips of an unclean spirit. So undeniable was Jesus’ authority that when He rebuked the unclean spirit, it had no choice but to obey and leave.
It becomes painfully clear that Jesus is not merely some good man, or a moral teacher that we should sometimes listen to but He is God, who has authority over the heavens and the earth. In light of that truth, I invite you to think about how you respond to Jesus’ authority in your life today? Do you respond obediently and immediately? Do you take His words and live by them dutifully? Daily?
If I’m being honest this is an area in my life I need to work on, and what better time to do so than right after the Baptism of our Lord this past Sunday, and the renewal of our baptismal promises made within the authority of the Church which was established by Jesus Christ Himself? I hope you will join me in this endeavor.
Jesus came to Capernaum with his followers,
and on the sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught.
The people were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.
In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit;
he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
Have you come to destroy us?
I know who you are–the Holy One of God!”
Jesus rebuked him and said, “Quiet! Come out of him!”
The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him.
All were amazed and asked one another,
“What is this?
A new teaching with authority.
He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.”
His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.
As an Irish rebel at heart, I agree!
Thankyou for this.