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.

 

May the story of the Epiphany be our story as well.

 

EPIPHANY 2024

"When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold magi from the East arrived in Jerusalem, saying, 'Where is the newborn king of the Jews saying, 'we saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage."'

In celebrating the Feast of the Epiphany, may the story of the Epiphany be our story as well. We are today's magi who come to discover and encounter the Christ child.

The magic symbolizes what is restless in the human spirt seeking for a greater depth of meaning and purpose in life. They left behind what was comfortable and safe and took considerable risks in traveling to another country in search of the Lord. The magi speak to our restless human spirit seeking to discover the spiritual meaning and longing for that which ultimately satisfies us. The magi were people open and inquisitive to discover a God bigger than their imagination — a God who delighted in their seeking and finding.

May each of us be in touch with our restless human spirit that is looking for something more in our spiritual journey. How is the Lord calling us to move beyond our comfort zone and follow a star that will lead us to that deeper relationship with Jesus that we seek? The grace of Epiphany invites to come to know Jesus in a deeper relationship.

The magi come to the Lord bearing gifts. In our epiphany story, what gifts do we bring to the Lord? Much more than gold, frankincense, and myrrh, do we bring and give and share the best instincts of the human spirit: do we give our love to the Lord, our joy, our compassion? Do we give our very lives over the Lord? Is it more important for us to give, rather than to take in our day-to-day living?

My hunch is that the Lord is placing a star in our life on this Epiphany Day that we are to follow. That star may not be in the sky but possibly be the star that is in the heart of someone you are called to love and to help and to serve. That star may be in the hearts of the poor who we are called to reach out to.

The star in our life, strange as it may seem, may be a struggle, a loss, a disappointment we have experienced. The grace of this experience may make us realize that we are not fully in control of our lives; this star event may lead us to trust more fully in the hand of God for our lives.

Please note the sharp contrast between the Magi and King Herod in the Epiphany Gospel. Herod sees the promised child as a threat. He is afraid the coming baby will crimp his style, will challenge his power and lower his status.

The Magi see the promised child as a wonderful gift. They have humbled themselves to travel a great distance to a strange culture that speaks a different language, in order to embrace this baby who fulfills God's love.

Herod's selfishness fueled by his fears leads to his downfall. The Magi's worship of the Christ child leads to the salvation of all the nations. Today more than two billion people call themselves Christians, in some way the result of the humility and the seeking spirit of the Magi.

We see the hostility of King Herod to the notion that he would have a rival to his kingship. Moved by jealousy, he hatched a murderous plot that was foiled by the non-cooperation of the magi.

Before we simply reject the treachery of Herod, we need to acknowledge that there is a Herod within each of us that keeps from following Christ more fully. What are the demons within us that make more self-centered than Christcentered? How radically do I share with those in need? What keeps me from listening more fully to another's point of view? Do I make time for God in the way that I live?

Yes, we all need to confess that we are sinners, and there is a bit of King Herod in all of us. But thanks be to God, the Bethlehem infant has come to be our Savior and Lord. We seek the grace of allowing ourselves to be loved by the Christ child.

In our discipleship of the Lord Jesus, we are the magi — seeking to encounter the Lord Jesus more fully in our lives. In seeking to encounter the Christ child, we come to a universal truth that brings great promise to us all.

It's revealed that there are no outsiders at the Bethlehem crib. There was no racism. All were welcome. Jesus welcomed everyone — the ox and the ass, the shepherds and magi, poor and rich, the Jews and Gentiles. He came for us all. He would reject no one, as he would accept the unique gifts of each. As we pray over this epiphany account, we too are to affirm that are no outsiders in our Church and in our world. All are welcome. We are to love our neighbor, no exceptions.

The magi did not come to Bethlehem empty handed. The Gospel tells us: they opened their treasures. Like the magi, each of us has a treasure to offer the Christ. The prayerful question we should ask ourselves this Sunday is: What is it? What do we have to give? Pay attention to what we give and also what we receive. We may journey like the magi seeking, but an Epiphany is beyond our control. Epiphany is an experience of grace, of how God transforms us in the mystery of the unconditional love that is given to us.

Notice well, the magi were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, and they departed for their country by another way. Of course, they would return by another route. Their lives have been changed by their encounter with Jesus. May we too with God's grace have our lives changed by our encounter with Jesus. We cannot go back to our old way of living with our fears, our anxieties, our addictions, our grudges, our pettiness. We are to put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Have a Blessed Epiphany Day.