Community Word: Disciples of Christ speak with authority by the power of God’s word.
Order: “Harden not your heart ….” (Ps 95:8a)
Reflection:
The 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time marks the beginning of the fulfillment of God’s Will in the life of Jesus Christ and the launching of what was, for all intents and purposes, a salvation drive that would give substance to the reason why Jesus was sent down from heaven. There are also two facts that are encapsulated in Mark’s Gospel. Firstly, Jesus needed no authority to back up his teaching for he is the authority himself. The other is that Jesus showed he has power and authority even against unclean spirits.
If people were amazed at his teaching, they were awestruck when he commanded an evil spirit to come out of a man in the synagogue (v.25). Mark probably included this event to establish the credentials of Jesus as “the Holy One of God” (v.24) by showing that even the spiritual underworld recognized him as the Son of God. And this event became the talk of the town throughout Galilee (v.28) because Jesus did not only spoke with authority in introducing a new doctrine of faith, but he acted with authority when he cast out the demon from a man.
The question now is what is in it for us? For one, the authority of Jesus is still very much alive today. This flows from the time when Christ created his Church to be the vehicle of his continuing mission in the world, as he promised to remain present in his Church for all time (Mt 28:20), lovingly guiding it through the presence of the Holy Spirit. To ensure the success of this mission, Christ gave the Church today the ability to teach, govern and sanctify with Christ’s own authority. The Apostles appointed successors to ensure that the Gospel would continue to be handed on faithfully as “the lasting source of all life for the Church” (Lumen Gentium 20, CCCC860).
The purpose of this authority is to give the Church the ability to teach without error about the essentials of salvation: “On this rock, I will build My Church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it” (Mt 16:18). The scope of this authority covers the official teachings of the Church on matters of faith, morals, and worship (Liturgy and Sacraments). It is on the basis of his continuing presence that the Church cannot lead people astray with its official teachings despite what may seem to be the individual errors in judgment that have caused scandals within the Church.
Hence, we the pilgrim Church must draw on the gift of faith and the free assent of our will to the whole truth revealed by God and nourished by his Word, so that we can assume our rightful place in his Kingdom since “he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight” (Eph 1:4).
As time is relatively short and we are all living on borrowed time, we must maximize our time spent so that we may all grow as disciples of Christ. Out of his love, our Lord gave us his Holy Spirit to enlighten our minds that we may grow in his truth and in the knowledge of his great love for each of us. This we can do by heeding his word for us to love God above all else and love our neighbors as well. However, it’s easier said than done because we cannot possibly go as we are commanded to do without the most important component of mission – the transformation of the inner man. And this can only happen if we will turn our lives around and place our lives in the hand of Jesus. This means that we must not “harden our hearts” and to cross over, from trusting ourselves to trusting Jesus Christ.
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