“They were astonished at his teaching because he spoke with authority”……"What is there about his word?”

In the Gospel today at Holy Mass from St Luke the people whom Jesus was addressing state something interesting...They said Jesus speaks with authority...."He taught them on the sabbath, and they were astonished at his teaching because he spoke with authority"........The word authority is not spoken about enough these days in my view. The reason being, I believe, the word authority is very misunderstood…”We”…As in you and me...Have no authority but sadly far too many people think they possess it…What I mean by that is…Our lives are limited and ultimately we can not add one minute to our existence…God is in control and we have no control…This is a hard pill to swallow but it is reality no matter who we are

Jesus is God….And when he spoke….People noticed something different about him…The question for us today is…Do we recognize the authority of Christ?….Do we acknowledge the authority he gave to his Church?…..If we do, we surely are a wise people…But if we do not…We simply are denying reality……Living under the pretense that we are “in control” is a formula for disaster

“Your Kingdom is a Kingdom for all ages and your dominion endures through all generations.”

When the saints speak, you can hear a pin drop!….Even the powerful of the world stop everything and listen….This is how it was when Mother Teresa spoke….Her life’s example was so powerful that even the most powerful leaders in the world sat at her feet when she spoke…How can that be, when many of these people vehemently disagreed with her on so many subjects?….Because when Mother Teresa spoke, she spoke with the authority given to her by the Holy Spirit

Even the demons are subject to the authority of Christ

Today at Mass in the Gospel we see something interesting happen….St Luke tells us about a man who was filled with an unclean spirit and approached Jesus to free him of it…..Immediately, the demon that possessed the man recognized the authority of Christ….............”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!”…Even the devil, who by the way is very real acknowledges the dominion of Jesus…..And in the gospel today when Jesus addressed this possessed man…The demon came out of him….”Jesus rebuked him and said, "Be quiet! Come out of him!”…As a result, the demon threw the man down to the ground and came out of him without doing him any harm….The people who saw this were amazed and stated the following……"What is there about his word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out”

St Luke today gives us an example of what real authority looks like…But we too can witness the authority of God in real time…Jesus gave his authority to all ordained Catholic Priests and they can forgive sins in his name…..”Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained”…….When we go to a Sacramental Confession and when we confess our sins, there is a deep sense of relief…This is not a “psychological sense of relief” as many secular people try to explain away the power of a Sacramental Confession with a Catholic Priest….We enter a Confession one way and come out of it another way - Washed Clean!….A true burden is lifted and only through the authority bestowed upon a Catholic Priest can this miracle take place…And yes…It is a miracle!

Truth authority rest with God alone…..When we live under God’s authority, we are free…This is a paradox but it is true…..The interesting thing about God’s authority is…Even if we deny it….We still live under it….Because God is the author of life…We are not…Jesus gave authority to his 12 friends and they formed a Church….”And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven”……To live under this authority makes us free and to deny this authority is like denying the very reality of the existence of the sun in the sky….You can choose not to look at the sun in the sky but that does not make it go away…The sun is still there and the warmth of its rays shine down upon the just and the unjust alike

“They were astonished at his teaching because he spoke with authority”……"What is there about his word?”