What authority does Jesus have over your life?

 

FOURTH SUNDAY IN OT B 2024

 

The Scriptures invite us to reflect on prophecies and what makes a prophet a prophet.

 

The OT prophets pointed to the coming of Jesus:

 

In the first scripture reading from the OT Book of Deuteronomy, Moses in his final address to the Israelites said:

 

“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet.”

 

I wonder if you would consider me a prophet if I could predict which of the four remaining teams is going to win the super bowl?  Would I be a prophet if I could tell you who is going to the November presidential elections?

 

The scriptures invite us to think about prophets not so much predicting the future but rather as one who speaks God’s word in the present moment.  Jesus spoke with authority.  Jesus spoke the voice of God to those gathered at the synagogue.

 

Jesus then put that authority into action by expelling the demon from the man who was possessed.  The those who were present for this miracle were astonished and commented that this new teaching of Jesus was a teaching that spoke with authority unlike the scribes and pharisees.

 

As we pray over today’s Gospel, we pray that the Lord will cast out the demons of our society – racism, inequality among the various classes of people, discrimination against the disadvantaged.

 

How much authority does Jesus have in your life?

 

 

The line that is often part of my prayer life – If you can’t make it through the storm, don’t tell Jesus is the captain of your ship.

 

What keeps us from placing first in our lives?  We had a meeting this past week with families who will be having their son or daughter making their First Communion this May.  It is a precious moment in the lives of our First Communicants and thus a precious moment in the lives of the families or our First Communicants.  The time of preparation is a time to reflect on the priority of the Eucharist in the weekly lives of all of us.  How much authority does the opportunity of receiving the Eucharistic life of Christ have on us not only on the day of our First Communion but on our weekly lifestyle as the disciples of Jesus?  What keeps us from placing God first in our lives?

 

The authority of Jesus in our lives refers not just to the times we are in Church but also to all the ways we are to the reality of the sacred into every sphere of our lives.

 

For example, who are the people in our lives whom we are unable to forgive?  Who do we too easily make judgments about the way they live their lives?

 

Our society is in desperate need of peacemakers or people who seek to bring unity to a culture in which there are too many divisions and polarizations. Do we have the courage in the name of God to live in the lane of love and forgiveness and healing?

 

What do I need to let go of so that Jesus has more authority in my life?  How can we better walk in the footsteps of Jesus to wash the feet of God’s poor, be a good Samaritan to a person in need, to forgive the Prodigal Son, to welcome the sinner and the excluded into experiencing the love and forgiveness of our healing God?

 

This week we celebrate Catholic Schools’ Week in our parish and in the diocese.  At St. Joseph’s School, we are missioned to fashion our students after the mind and heart of Jesus.  We seek to challenge our students academically but even more we seek to touch their hearts so that they know the love of Jesus deep in their heart and spirit.  Know the love of God in their DNA, our students will then be motivated to share what they have been given to one and all.  In St Joseph’s School, we seek to teach with authority – the authority that comes from Jesus Himself.

 

 

In the Gospel, there was in the synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out: What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?  Somehow this man was possessed.  Evil came into him and maybe it was not his fault.  He left clean and whole, with a kindness in his heart he would never forget.  The people were amazed not just at Jesus but at the change in the man who had been possessed. 

 

What are the evil desires in myself?  For control of others, for greed, for whatever leads me away from love.  Imagine the light of Christ filling the darkness in me.  Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

 

In your life what demons do you wish the Lord to cast out?

 

In the penitential rite and in the words we speak before receiving Communion “Lord I am not worthy,” we confess that there are demons within us, there are areas of our life that Jesus is not yet Lord, but we come before the Lord confident in the mercy and forgiveness of God.

 

Who of us doesn’t have to confess that too often we are more self-centered that God-centered and other-centered?  Who among us doesn’t have to confess that we haven’t shared the blessings of our life with others in greater need?  Nobody owns anyone in this earth, and we belong only to God in a free way. Who of us doesn’t have to confess that we called to a greater awareness of being good stewards of all of God’s creation?  The environment is not ours, but for us.

 

Getting some grasp of who we encounter in Jesus the Christ is the work of a lifetime.  Sadly, many people think they know all about him.  Please God, we recognize that we have just begun in living under the authority of Jesus.  Our reflections merely attune us to being aware of the Holy One who encounters us in our loves, our trials, our fears, our talents, our demons, and right now in our gathering, and our sharing in His banquet.

 

Have a Blessed Day.