The WORD in other words (2009) by Brother Romualdo Abulad SVD – Cebu City
Tuesday 22nd Week in Ordinary Time
“They were astonished at his teaching because he spoke with authority.” – Luke 4, 32
Jesus was teaching and those who were listening to him were astonished. Why? Because he spoke with authority, says our evangelist. So, how is it to speak with authority and why should this astonish anyone? The key to this is to be found in the story of the man possessed by a demon. At the end of the narrative we are told that the people were amazed and began asking each other, “What is there about his word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.” ‘Luke 4, 36) It seems that Jesus’ authority was coming from his words. His words had power; by them he was able to command the demon to depart. “Be made clean,” he said to the demoniac, and immediately the demoniac was cleansed.
The power of the word recalls the Word of creation. “Let there be light!” and there was light! There is something creative about words. Words create, and so we have such a college course simply titled ‘Creative Writing.’ Each year someone receives the much-coveted Nobel Prize for Literature solely for the world to recognize the power and original beauty of words. Words are the flesh by which ideas are made visible and sent across peoples and nations; they are the medium of communication and dialogue. Cultural exchange is unimaginable in the absence of words.
A healing miracle such as what we witness in today’s Gospel is symbolic of God’s creative power, showing that something significant is taking place. To put it plainly, a miracle points to the in-breaking of the Kingdom. “The Kingdom of God is at hand!” proclaims John the Baptist. ‘At hand’ means that it is already here. The Kingdom is not a distant dreamland still to come in a remote unknown time. It is here! The power of Jesus’s word signifies that times have changed, that things are no longer as before, that now has already been transfigured and transformed.
And so, in the first reading, Paul in his letter to Thessalonians reminds us that we are no longer creatures of darkness and that nothing should overtake us anymore “like a thief in the night.” “For all of you are children of the light and children of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober.”
Jesus comes to save and inaugurate the in-breaking of the Kingdom. He died for us so that “we may live together with him”–him who is the Light. Thus, his Word cuts through the darkness and has the power to transform our lives and create for us a new heaven and a new earth.
