Posted by The WORD in other words (2006) by Fr Jaimelito Gealan, SVD
Tuesday 1st Week in Ordinary Time
I heard of a Slavic proverb which says: “If you wish to know what a man is, place him in authority.” Can I say then that I know Jesus because he spoke and acted with authority?
Jesus taught as one having authority! This Gospel insists twice that Jesus was teaching with an authority never seen before. Even the evil spirits acknowledge his authority: “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 truly speaks with full authority because it was given to him by his Father. “For I have not spoken on my own authority,” Jesus says in John 12. “But he who sent me, the Father, has commanded me what I should say.”
Jesus did not preach himself, neither did he transmit a message forged by human wisdom, but he preached with such a coherence between his words and his life. The authority of Jesus laid bare the credibility of his being. There was power in Jesus’ words.
It was at Puebla, ten years after Medellin, that the Latin American cardinals and bishops met again. One of them, Dom Helmer Camara said: “Medellin produced beautiful statements, an excellent analysis, and very good recommendations, but,” he added, “nothing really happened. The church is still with the rich, in order to be able to help the poor who are poor because of those rich!” No evil spirit had been chased away. Everything remained the same or worse than ever before.
Jesus forced his will against the evil spirits: “Quiet! Come out of him!” And, immediately, the man was healed. What a power! What an authority! We need that power, we need that authority in fighting temptations, trials, poverty, evil!
We can have that only if we have Jesus with us! If Jesus lives in our hearts always and forever! He is alive and waiting for us to turn to him with confidence as our Lord and Savior.
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