Authority - what and from where?

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 1st week in Ordinary time

January 11, 2022: 1 Samuel 1: 9-20; Mark 1:21-28

Eli is too fast to judge Hannah... what permits him to do that? Does he assume authority to himself to judge a person; is it justified of him, he being a so-called man of God! Hannah points out to him that he need not be true, merely because he is in authority...nor is it taken for granted that he is better because of that same fact. Eli was wrong and Hannah was there standing tall in her total fidelity to God who had mercy on her. 

In the Gospel the pharisees wonder from where Jesus got his authority! Jesus spoke things and spoke in a way that they could not disprove him, nor could they challenge him. They wished to silence him with counter arguments and threatening accusations, but their efforts were all in vain. He just stood way up and ahead of them.

Where did he get that authority from, they wondered, as we ourselves can and need to: from where did Jesus' authority spring? Of course from the total fidelity to the One who sent him. With that absolute fidelity and uncompromising surrender to the Lord, Jesus could say anything and it would happen! And that is authority... that confidence to say anything and that can come only from the One who can do anything, the Almighty! Every baptised son and daughter of God is invested with this authority, it is our duty to discover and unlock it, that the world may see a speck of God's presence in and through us.