The Authority of Jesus: Fourth (4th) Sunday in Ordinary Time, B, 2012

Have you ever noticed that I like to quote other people or documents and let you from where I got some reading or some piece of information.  The Second Vatican Council wrote, or G.K Chesterton said, or a contemporary Christian song goes. I do that because I defer to the authority of others and because it is NOT all about me.    My friend gave me a T-shirt.  It says in big letters, “It’s all about me.”  My friend took a glitter glue gun, crossed out “me” and wrote “Jesus.”  It really is “all about Jesus,” which is the title of another contemporary Christian song.  This is the basis for the Gospel this week.  When Jesus came to the synagogue, the Gospel tells that “The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.”  Pope John Paul II explains that “the people immediately recognized the difference between Christ’s teaching and that of the Israelite scribes, and not only in manner but also in substance.  The scribes based their teaching of the Mosaic Law of which they were the interpreters . . . Jesus did not at all follow the method of a “teacher” or “commentator” of the Old Law, but he conducted himself as a Lawgiver and, in the last analysis, as one who had authority over the Law.”  Remember that elsewhere when Jesus was talking about the Law he would say, “you have heard it said to your ancestors, ‘You shall not Kill’ but I tell you . . .”  or “You have heard it said that ‘you shall not commit adultery’ but I say to you …”  By teaching on His own authority without reference to what the scribes, or the rabbis, or even Moses said, Jesus showed that He “was claiming the power to complete and interpret authoritatively or even propose the Law of God in a new way,” in order to show His own “awareness of being equal to God” which we profess every Sunday in the Creed. As God, Jesus had the authority the change the Law, but Jesus came not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it.  What is the greatest commandment of the Law of God?  The Gospel of Matthew records Jesus’ answer to that question, when it was addressed to him by one of the Pharisees.   Jesus responded, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it.  You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” What does it mean to love?  Pope Benedict’s first encyclical was on this very topic.  It is entitled “God is love.”  His Holiness attempts in this encyclical to help us understand that true meaning of love as revealed in Jesus Christ.  Love is what allows our faith to be fruitful.  In today’s Gospel, Jesus freed the man of an unclean spirit.  Before coming out of the man, the demon proclaimed “I know who you are – the Holy One of God!”  But Jesus would not let the demon speak.  Demons speak the truth only to deceive.  The devil deceived Eve with words that sounded good, because even an atheist can teach the Catechism.  But in a similar statement recorded in John’s Gospel, Simon Peter told Jesus, “We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God."  Why was Peter not told to be quiet but the demon rebuked and told to be quiet.  St. John Chrysostom, St. Ambrose, and St. Augustine all agree that even if the demon confessed Christ as the Holy One of God, it meant nothing without love. The demon did not have love of God but only fear of God.  What did the demon say before declaring Jesus was the Holy One of God.  The demon said, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?”  The demon recognized Jesus as God, but the demon did not confess that God is love.  The demon could only see God as a punishing judge who would destroy them and not let them continue in their evil lifestyle.  Do we see the Holy One of God as someone who will punish us if we don’t live by His laws or do we confess Jesus to be the Holy One of God like St. Peter did.  St. Peter made his profession that Jesus was the Holy One of God out of love for Jesus who had just promised to give them His Body and Blood to eat.  St. John tells us in his first letter that “In this is love brought to perfection among us, that we have confidence on the day of judgment because as he is, so are we in this world.  There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love. We love because he first loved us.”  And that’s not me telling you how much God loves you, but the Holy Word of God.