(Deuteronomy 18:15-20; 1st Corinthians 7:32-35; Mark 1:21-28)
Moses had found the Israelites both hard to teach and
reluctant to obey the words given him by the Lord for their observance; so
perhaps there was some overtone of irony in his voice when, as we heard in our
first reading, he said to them:
A
prophet like me will the LORD, your God, raise up for you from among your own
kinsmen; to him you shall listen.
We, however, are
not like those Israelites of old; and so, let us recall and try to profitably
consider what is of supreme importance from that first reading today:
Moses spoke to the people saying:
‘The LORD said to me, “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among
their kinsmen, and will put My words into his mouth; he shall tell them all
that I command him”.
We then heard why it would be so very important for them to
listen to the promised prophet better than they had listened to Moses himself:
If
any man will not listen to My words which he (the prophet) speaks in My name, I Myself will
make him (that person) answer for it.
After Moses, the Lord did indeed raise up a series of
prophets: great prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Micah, Ezekiel, Daniel,
and others, whose messages live on in the Bible, and yet others whose names
alone are remembered; but even though they spoke faithfully, and -- at times --
most beautifully, in the name of the God of Israel, we find throughout the
Bible that their message was largely ignored:
I have sent to you all My
servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but you have not
inclined your ear, nor obeyed Me. (Jeremiah 35:15-16)
Or, as Isaiah put it more dramatically (42:18-20):
Hear, you deaf! And look, you
blind, that you may see. You have seen
many things, but you do not observe them; your ears are open, but none hears.
A prophet was called and sent to speak a message given him
by God. However, should a prophet betray
his calling by substituting his own words for the word of God – which was always
a possibility because of human sinfulness and the importance and attention
accorded to a recognized prophet – God had also most solemnly warned:
If a
prophet presumes to speak in My name an oracle that I have not commanded him to
speak, or speaks in the name of other gods, he shall die.
And so, though the Lord took great care to have His word
faithfully proclaimed and publicly appreciated in Israel, nevertheless, His
true prophets were frequently ignored by the people; and indeed, opposed, and
even physically oppressed, by their leaders who were inclined to listen only to
what they wanted to hear, rather than to the word the Lord their God chose to
send them (Matthew 23:37):
O Jerusalem, who kills the
prophets and stones those who are sent to her!
Nevertheless, Moses’ promise of a special prophet to come was not
forgotten by pious Israelites, neither was their conviction that his
message would be of decisive
importance for the fulfilment of Israel’s destiny. You can, therefore, appreciate the
significance of the question put to John the Baptist by a delegation of Jews
from the authorities in Jerusalem:
Are you the Prophet?”
Recall also, in this connection, the voice of the Father speaking
from heaven to Peter, James and John on the Mount of Jesus’ transfiguration:
This is My beloved Son. LISTEN TO HIM!
(Mark 9:7)
Believers of today now know the reason why the Prophet promised
by Moses would speak infallibly in God’s name: it is because that Prophet was the very Word of God Himself
Who became one of us as Jesus, the Son of Mary, the Virgin of Nazareth:
Jesus answered, "My doctrine
is not Mine but His Who sent Me. I and
My Father are One." (John
7:16, 10:30)
So, People of God, you are in a position to understand that
when Jesus spoke, He did so with authority, a God-given authority, not as the scribes; and that why, as
we were told:
The people were astonished at His
teaching.
Now, that same Jesus speaks to us today, indeed, He is
speaking now, in your midst, as I proclaim His word in His name; and we must
always bear in mind that He was, and still is, the Saviour of those, and only
those, who want to be
saved, who will “Repent”. Many to
whom He spoke and who heard His teaching would not accept His teaching-with-authority
and, consequently, did not acknowledge His Person; those He left them to
themselves, He did not seek to force Himself upon them.
And now today, each of us here must be prepared to answer a
question arising from the secret depths
of our Catholic mind and heart: “Do I want Jesus to be my Lord and Saviour, or
do I want to be left in the indolence of my own comfort and indifference? Do I
want to be rescued from my sinfulness or not?
What, indeed, do I want, here, before God?”
Yes, dear People, if you really want Jesus to be your
Saviour, a Rock of strength and support for you, a Light to reveal the authentic
beauty of God’s saving will for you, and to guide you into the joy of walking,
by His Spirit, along the path He has traced out for you. If you want God – Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit -- to be your earthly joy and promise of eternal blessedness, your earthly
light leading to heavenly glory; IF you want to become -- in Jesus -- a
true child of God, then you must give
Him authority in your life now, here on earth. Jesus is no tyrant, He will not arrogate such
authority to Himself; but if you humbly and faithfully give it to Him, He will
use it for your great, eternal blessing.
Listen now to Our Lord Himself again (John 7:16-17):
My doctrine is not Mine, but His
who sent Me. If anyone wants to do His
will, he will know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I
speak on My own authority.
“If anyone wants to do God’s will, he will know, he will realize
…” God has done His work by giving
us His Son --- Who suffered, died, and rose again for us --- and His Spirit, to
guide and form us as His children in His beloved Son; and now, we have to
choose: “If anyone wants”, Jesus
said, “to do God’s will, he will know the truth of My teaching.” Jesus never
fails His People; but not all those who
call themselves Christians and Catholics actually want, or do choose,
Jesus to be their Lord and Saviour. Far too
many concede Him the titles of Lord and Saviour indeed, but not the authority
of Lord and Master in their lives.
In a sinful world, ‘authority’ easily brings to mind an
objectionable, domineering attitude, that has to be resisted, or at least submerged
and forgotten in a flood of emotional words and deeds. And yet, true love
cannot be exercised without right authority: God the Father sent His
Son among us; His Son obediently came into our world at the behest of,
and out of supreme love for, His Father; and in every Christian household, loving
parents must guide, and when necessary correct, with right authority their
children.
See, dear People of God, when Jesus used those words, The Father and I are One: He was
speaking about authority and obedience, command and love, as being
complimentary manifestations of the absolute one-ness of divinity; He was
speaking about the dignity,
understanding, and the totally selfless mutual commitment, uniting the
Father and Himself as Son, in the work of our salvation, through their most
Holy Spirit.
Dear People of God, Mother Church’s traditional faith, is
God’s saving truth. Mother Church’s sacraments
give us God’ grace. We recognize and acknowledge
that Truth; we follow, and are grateful for, that grace, in our lives. But our hearts are moved to love -- in
return -- by Beauty. Our
Blessed Lady loved Jesus as God’s ‘gift’, as her own Son, but ultimately, above
all, she loved Him for being the sublimely beautiful Person she had seen,
come to know ever-more-deeply, and experienced -- full heart-and-soul --
Him to be. We recognize and acknowledge
the traditional faith of Mother Church, we are grateful for her God-given
sacraments which are God’s chosen channels of our salvation … but, the supreme
fulfilment of our Christian and Catholic being is only to be found in the measure-of-our-awareness
of the Personal Beauty of the God behind them; the God Who supports
them; the God and Father of us all Who bestows them.
