Daily Mass Readings 09/02/2014 or If I Speak With Authority, Will You Still Respect Me Tomorrow?

"Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee.
He taught them on the sabbath,
and they were astonished at his teaching
because he spoke with authority.
In the synagogue there was a man with the spirit of an unclean demon,
and he cried out in a loud voice,
“What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
Have you come to destroy us?
I know who you are–the Holy One of God!” -Lk. 4:31-34

09/02/2014 Tuesday of the Twenty-second Week of Ordinary Time

The people of Capernaum were impressed by the way that Jesus spoke with authority. If Jesus were to come and speak with authority now, what do you think the reaction would be? If he were to be speaking publicly now, on television, in the media and speaking with authority and certainty of the truth I'm pretty sure that, like anyone doing so now, he would be shouted down and attacked as bigoted, judgmental and (most horrifically) closed-minded.

Jesus preached about sin and freedom from sin through God's mercy, redemption and turning your back on sin. Today we're not allowed to suggest that anything is sinful. As long as it matches up with my personal measure of what is good and evil, it's all good. It seems today that the worst sin you can commit is grasping onto the truth and 'closing' your mind on it. And, God forbid you have the nerve to speak about it at all, let alone do so with authority and certainty.

Yes, I fear that were Jesus to be teaching the fullness of His truth nowadays he would not be very popular. There would not be the opportunity to take small passages of His words out of context for cute little memes because He would be able to expand on his points and reveal their full context. On second thought, they would still get away with it. They would just quote Jesus selectively and ignore the context, kind of like they do with Pope Francis.

Let's not forget, however, that later in this passage, and in other gospel readings, Jesus speaks with authority to drive out demons. He speaks with authority about things that are socially acceptable now, like how we should forgive our brother not seven times, but seven times seventy (biblical speak for an infinite number of times), or that we should take care of the least among us, and about how we are not to judge. He also teaches with authority about things that don't give people the warm fuzzies, like what sin is, God's plan for marriage and about God's judgement and how we all will be subject to it.

As followers of Jesus should we only take with authority the things that are acceptable to today's worldly standards, when it is easy to do so? Or should we trust Jesus' authority in all things, even when it may make things uncomfortable for us?

God bless,

P.D.O.