Luke 4:31-37 By What Authority?
I have been asked many times, “How do we know who God is? Can we see him, touch him, or hear him?” At first I didn’t know how to answer this question until I realized the obvious: We know God because we know Christ. Jesus is God. Christ spoke with authority and power. That is, his word has power to change (transform), heal and set free those who believe in him. “All were amazed and said to one another, ‘What is there about his word?’”
We read throughout scripture how the crowds were amazed at Jesus and watched him closely, or carefully (Lk 14:1). This is an on-going observation. They were looking for where the strings were attached. Things have not changed much. We are always looking for reasonable, logical explanations to life occurrences. So too, were the crowds, the Pharisees and scribes that were monitoring Jesus. “By what authority does this man command?” The sick are healed. Not enough? The dead begin to rise. Not enough? It is never enough for us. We need to see it for ourselves! “Seeing is believing!” Not only are there healings, but also deeply profound reflections from the carpenter’s son. Christ reveals the mystery of who man is. Who am I? What am I here for? What must I do? Christ opens our minds to ask the meaningful questions and he opens our hearts by answering them in word and in deed. The Lord does not mind at all, he knows the question, “How can this be?” quickly evolves to “Who is this man?”
“I know who you are!” St. James tells us in his letter that “even the devil believes in God!” Even the devil knows that he is the “Holy One of God!” But to know him is not sufficient. It takes more. It takes humility. “Better to reign in hell, than to serve in heaven!” This is the philosophy of the unclean spirit who goes against God. Better to reign than to serve!
“I know who you are!” Let us not fool ourselves. This is a declaration of war. This is no simple dialogue. This is combat and it is to the death! “Either He destroys us or we destroy him.” The devil, out of pride and cunning, wishes to reveal who Jesus is before “his hour has arrived.” The Lord will have nothing to do with it. Christ is not about to allow the unclean to reveal who he is. He has his mission, his plan and his vision, which is the revelation of God’s mind.
St. Paul asks, “Who could ever know the mind of God?” He quotes scripture, “who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to counsel him?” Only Christ knows, because Christ is the Word. By knowing Christ, we know God. By knowing what Christ thinks, we know what God thinks. By knowing what Christ says, we know what God wants. By witnessing Christ’s authority, we know that God rules! Christ’s authority comes from the Cross. It is nailed to the Cross. His authority is His Love for us!
Today, let us take some time to read the Gospel, to meditate on the word and to fall in love with His Word: To know, to love, to imitate. God willing, by our words and actions, we too may be a sign of contradiction in the world. “Who are you?"
If only we could recognize that Christ is the Lord! How different our lives would be! The problem is that we worship the gods of " power ", "money", "beauty", "fame","sex" that the world demands us to persue : Women don't want to get pregnant because their body shape will change: instead of choosing love they choose " beauty", how deceiving is the devil! They choose sex instead of chastity in order that they are not pointed as " old fashion". How easy is to have sex in this times and how difficult is to find love! If only we could listen what God, who is LOVE, ask from us! How different our lives would be! I'm sure that ALL the problems in the world would end if we were attentive at His voice.
ReplyDelete"Today, let us take some time to read the Gospel, to meditate on the word and to fall in love with His Word: To know, to love, to imitate. God willing, by our words and actions, we too may be a sign of contradiction in the world."
ReplyDeleteGrowing up in the ‘Bible Belt’, I often heard these Generic Christians & Baptists talking about a personal relationship with Jesus and thought, “what the heck does that mean?” They loved Jesus like a real person. And they carried a worn out Bible around ready to prove they knew what they were talking about and those Mary worshiping, Pope loving Catholics, like me, were clueless.
I never knew Catholics could have a personal relationship with Jesus and love Him too. I think they just taught us to love the wind and the trees and stuff like that in CCD in the 70’s.
When I really thought about it, I came to the conclusion that you can’t love anyone you don’t know, I mean not on a personal basis, like ‘they’ did.
I just realized reading this meditation, that it must have been the Bible that allowed them to ‘know’ Jesus on a personal level. That must be how they were able to love him like a real person!
I’m thinking, Father must know what he’s talking about telling us to read the Gospels and to meditate on them.
So, we too can fall in love with Jesus, have a ‘personal relationship’ with Him and still keep the Blessed Mother and the Pope! We can have it all! Wait, we do have it all!