Posted by The WORD in other words (2010) by Fr Martin Mandin SVD – Cainta, Rizal
Saturday 8th Week in Ordinary Time
In his experience of loneliness and emptiness, Kant, a German philosopher, loved to read Psalm 23: “The Lord is my shepherd… even though I walk through the valley of darkness, I fear no evil, for You are there to show the way” (Psalm 23:1,4).
Kant was an unbeliever, but why did he love to recite this psalm? God’s Word has the power to turn an unbeliever toward faith, even implicitly. The psalm must have facilitated his search for true humanity.
A brilliant priest who was a doctoral student in Rome had a peculiar hobby. He loved going to various churches to listen to homilies or reflections of priests. His hobby led him to conclude: the Gospel, when elaborated in view of human history and experience, is exciting.
The God of intelligence must have been speaking to him.
The Word of God is an authority for our humanity. “Through Christ and in Christ, the riddles of sorrow and death grow meaningful” (Gaudium et Spes #22). God never contradicts humanity. As Karl Rahner said, “Theology is anthropology.” Jesus’ authority, which made the elders’ authority questionable, was based on God’s Word and sovereignty. “The people were amazed at His teaching, because He taught them as one who had authority, and not as the teachers of the law” (Mark 1:22). God’s law, His Word, is the synthesis of divine and human wisdom, as one exegete puts it.
In fact, authority as a concept implies enrichment, growth, and increase. The term “authority” comes from the Latin auctoritas, whose root is the verb augere — to increase, to enrich.
People must have felt the inhumanity of the scribes and Pharisees in their exercise of authority. No wonder, with Jesus’ authority, people were amazed. His authority was not oppressive but life-giving, rooted in truth and love.
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