Speaking With Authority - You Can Do It Too!

Gospel	Mark 1:21-28

Unlike the scribes, he taught them with authority

Jesus and his disciples 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.

  In their synagogue just then there was a man possessed by an unclean spirit and it shouted, ‘What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God.’ But Jesus said sharply, ‘Be quiet! Come out of him!’ And the unclean spirit threw the man into convulsions and with a loud cry went out of him. The people were so astonished that they started asking each other what it all meant. ‘Here is a teaching that is new’ they said ‘and with authority behind it: he gives orders even to unclean spirits and they obey him.’ And his reputation rapidly spread everywhere, through all the surrounding Galilean countryside.

Jesus taught with authority and He impressed his listeners. What made His teaching different from others? What made it more impressive than the teachings of the dozens of learned rabbis that took to the pulpit and taught the word of God?  The people were used to hearing sermons that sounded like this: "Rabbi A says this, while Rabbi B says this and I say thus and so forth."  When Jesus spoke he did not rest his case on the backs of the rabbis, but rather he taught using the words, "I say..."  He made it personal and because He was the Son of God, the Messiah, he did not have to rely on anyone to validate His words or His teachings. He backed His teaching up with action, in this case removing demons from a possessed man.  This impressed the crowd even more than the words of Christ. 

We too can teach with authority.  We can study the Word of God until we are able to recite it backward and forwards.  The words of Jesus, of course, can be captivating in and of themselves can burn their way into the souls of others.  But what will really drive the point home will be how you conduct yourself.  If you say. "Forgive" and yet you carry a grudge, people will say that you are two-faced and the word you gave them will have a harder time to take root in their souls.  But if you say, "Forgive" and really do forgive or if you say, "Love" and show yourself to be a person of love, or if you say "Hope" and you are a person that has infinite hope in Jesus, well, then your words will be memorable and they will take root and you will have helped a person to find his or her way to Jesus and you will have made a difference that will last an eternity.

Please remember the poor souls in Purgatory this day.  Remember that tomorrow you might be among their number.  Many in Purgatory have no one to pray for them because they come from the Protestant tradition who rejects the existence of Purgatory and so their relatives and friends who might be there have no one at all to pray for them.  Please step up and fill the void.