A New Teaching With Authority

January 29, 2012

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time B 2012

By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ

I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kin, and will put my words into his mouth; he shall tell them all that I command him. Whoever will not listen to my words which he speaks in my name, I myself will make him answer for it. Deuteronomy 18:18-19

Brothers and sisters: I should like you to be free of anxieties. 1 Corinthians 7:32

In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit; he cried out, "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 rebuked him and said, "Quiet! Come out of him!" Mark 1:23-25

Piety

Our piety is the fullness of how we honor God with our whole being. It answers the question of how well do we love the Lord our God with our mind, heart and soul. Am I all there for the Lord? Am I giving the Lord all of myself? Do I speak all and only what the Lord has given me to speak. We are all called to be prophets for the Lord. The prophet speaks clearly what is wrong in our world. The prophet gets ahead of the foolish crowd and suffers for speaking the Word of the Lord. Our piety is the word the Lord puts into us that is spoken with all that we are, mind body and soul, to those the Lord wants to hear him through us. Our piety speaks to our entire world through all that we are in the name of the Lord.

Study

Our Spiritual Exercises are the most profound study we are capable of to discern what the Lord is asking of us. Family, friends and associates can crowd the focus of our hearts. Study allows us to follow the Lord and to adhere to him without distraction. Christ is the perfect answer to the question of what is important. Christ is the God answer to the question of what is the meaning of life. How the prophets would have loved to have heard Christ. Study gives us the possibility of hearing Christ with all our mind and heart. Created to the image and likeness of God in Christ, we have in his love the answer to the question of life. Our study reveals to us what we should be doing with our lives. “The people who sit in darkness” see a great light in Christ.

Action

There are many gifts of the Lord. But there is only one giver of the gifts we have, the Lord. What we will do for Christ is determined by the needs of his people. How we use our gifts for one another is how the kingdom of God is built up. Christ spoke with authority to drive out the evil spirits. The wealth of our experiences becomes the voice of the Lord in our hearts calling us to do what we can to make a better world. Our actions have a divine meaning when we do what we can for one another in the name of Christ. Our actions make it possible for us to say: “When you see me, you see Christ.” Our actions become prayer when we do them in the name of Christ. Our connection with Christ gives us the authority of Christ to drive out the devils of selfishness from our world. We need to make it possible for our world to say: “See how those Christians love one another.”