The Authority of a Life Lived in God

Tuesday of Week 1 in Ordinary Time (Year A)
Hebrews 2:5-12 | Psalm 8:2,5-9 | Mark 1:21-28


Jesus and his followers went as far as Capernaum, and as soon as the sabbath came he went to the synagogue and began to teach. And his teaching made a deep impression on them because, unlike the scribes, he taught them with authority. (Mark 1:21-22)

Jesus was in a unique position. As the Son of God, He was “put in command of everything” (Hebrews 2:8), and He worked miracles during His ministry on earth as signs of that authority. More importantly, He was not limited by appeals to external authority when speaking about what God wanted of mankind; while the scribes were hobbled by their need to defer to one rabbi or another in their religious discourse, Jesus simply said, “I tell you most solemnly…”

Similarly, I’ve heard many conversations along the lines of “Fr. X said you should do Y, because…well, I can’t quite remember what he said, but it was a good reason.” Hardly convincing, is it? Much better to say “you should do Y, because Z”, but will they believe us, or reply with a snarky “and who made you God?”

We are called to spread the Word of God to others, but how can we do so with authority, especially when this world seems to revolve around moral relativity and personal opinion, in which everyone claims “authority” that others are reluctant to challenge on grounds of political correctness, or that are challenged with great ferocity but little substance?

The one way I’ve found is to live that Word, to experience what Fr. X was talking about, to internalize it and make it part of our being. Just as we would never trust a mechanic who’s read every car repair manual inside and out but never actually touched an engine, so we should not expect others to take our word for anything, just because we appeal to ecclesial authority. Being able to say “I speak from experience” and actually be living proof of it beats any number of theoretical suggestions.

So instead of being a NATO (No Action, Talk Only) “commander”, we should “practice what we preach”. Instead of just telling a friend in despair to “pray about it,” we should immediately join them in a prayer of comfort and appeal to our heavenly Father. Instead of just talking about charity, we should practice it for real, giving up our seats to those in more need of support, resisting dishonest urges in our dealings with vendors, being living models of Christian love.

In this way, when we speak of the unremitting love of God as shown to us through His Son’s ultimate sacrifice, even those who would prefer not to follow Christ cannot simply dismiss our words as being without foundation, since we would have proven ourselves by our very deeds to be that foundation.

We will never attain Christ’s level of authority, but we can certainly improve on “do what I say, not what I do”.

Lord, the world at large prefers to reject Your words of love and mercy.
Help us live our lives steeped in those words of love and mercy.
Help us pour forth Your love and mercy through our words and actions each day,
and so convince others by example that You are indeed the Way of Truth and Life. Amen.

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