WORD 2day: Tuesday, 22nd week in Ordinary Time
September 3, 2019: 1 Thessalonians 5: 1-6, 9-11; Luke 4: 31-37
Jesus spoke with authority, felt the people. In fact the Scribes and pharisees too spoke to them from pedestals and pulpits. They found a qualitative difference in what was said by Jesus and the way he said it. They saw persons cast out demons but never the way Jesus did it. There was something peculiar about Jesus and the people noted it.
Jesus' authority came from within, from his self realisation of who he was in the core of his being. The source of his authority was not some where out in the wilderness or in some far away reality. It was from God whom Jesus felt right within him, present so faithfully and powerfully, the Abba! That is the difference between power and authority! The latter comes from within... you become the author of your own words, ideas, acts and example.
People dominate, oppress, plot and scheme things in order to gain prominence, it is so prevalent around us today. We are no different, mind you. In our relationships too - be it familial or institutional or interpersonal - we tend constantly to establish our identity and supremacy over the other or the others. When that ascendancy is naturally not there, what we do becomes arrogance. When that ascendancy comes naturally from within, it becomes assertion!
In the first reading St. Paul reminds us of the fact that we too, possess the same authority that Jesus had because the source of all authorities, resides within us. 'Alive or dead, we should always be united in Christ' says Paul. And our authority would come naturally from this union at the core of our beings. That's the true source of real authority.