Prophetic Authority

Homily for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Deacon Thomas Stephenson

February 01, 2015

When we want to learn about something, what kind of person do we turn to? What are some of the characteristics of a great teacher? Of all the qualities that may come to mind - and each of us could probably come up with different qualities we would like to see in a teacher – at or near the top of the list for all of us would be having a thorough knowledge of the subject. And that real, deep knowledge comes best from doing; the best teachers are those who have acquired knowledge of their subject by experiencing it, by living it, rather than only having read about it and just passing on what they learned from what someone else has written.

When Jesus was teaching in the synagogue, the people were amazed. “What is this”, they said “a new teaching – with authority!” The scribes didn’t teach that way, they couldn’t teach that way. The Greek word that is translated here as authority is perhaps better understood as meaning “to speak out of one’s being”. It’s the difference between a teacher who just opens the textbook and reads to the class, and one who knows the subject so thoroughly that the class can sense the knowledge and passion of that teacher. Who could know and understand scripture better than the Son of God, the Word Himself? So, of course, His teaching had an authority that no one else’s could possibly have.

That does not mean that other teaching is not useful or valuable, because of course it is, we wouldn’t be able to learn much otherwise. But no matter how good any teaching may be, it cannot compare to the teaching of Jesus. And we have His teachings, passed on to us through the Gospels and other New Testament writings, through Sacred Tradition, and through His Church. And we also have the knowledge of God revealed to us through the Old Testament, which is critical for our understanding of His plan for our salvation.

In our first reading today from Deuteronomy, God tells Moses that He will raise up a Prophet like him, like Moses. When we think of prophets, what often comes to mind is someone who can tell the future. But the Prophets were not oracles, they did not predict the future. Although the prophets did warn of things to come, the prophets were sent to communicate God’s word to the Israelites, to interpret His word for them - and ultimately, for us.

Those who hear the words of the prophets are accountable to the Lord, they are responsible to heed those words. And, the prophet is responsible to transmit God’s word faithfully, and not to speak anything in God’s name that God did not ask him to, or that contradicts what God told him. Their task was to instruct, and sometimes to warn, the people, according to what God wanted, not according to their own opinions or feelings.

The prophets spoke for God, but they were not God. And that brings us back to Jesus, who taught with such authority because He is God. Although we are reading about Christ’s teachings in the Gospels, and not hearing them first hand, we should listen to them with an understanding of them having that same authority.

And that extends to the teaching authority of His Church. Jesus gave authority to the Church, to bind and to loose, to teach us and guide us, to speak the truth in His name. Dave McPike spoke about that in his talk about the Mass last week, that we need to recognize the authority of the Church, to be obedient to its instruction. These days, what the Church teaches is not always popular; it is actually quite often received with hostility, sometimes with the very words we heard in the Gospel – What have you to do with us? But like the prophets speaking to the Israelites, the Church does have something to do with us, and with all people. It must be a witness, speaking God’s word, not teaching falsehood under any guise, and not refraining from teaching the truth for any reason.

When the Church teaches us about matters of faith and morals, it is not trying to control us. We always have free will to do whatever we want. There are no Church Police lurking around the corner to force us into submission. What the Church is doing is not controlling us but giving us the knowledge and guidance we need to deepen our relationship with the Lord, and to repair that relationship if it has been damaged. There is a song from the late fifties titled To Know Him is to Love Him, and that is especially true of God. We get to know Him through prayer, through our Mass attendance and reception of the sacraments, through our spiritual reading, but also through scripture and the teachings of the Church. We are to use all of these teachings to assist us in nurturing our love for God.

We still have prophetic voices in our day, voices who use their knowledge of God’s word and teachings to instruct us and warn us. Especially our Popes over the past fifty years or so – Paul VI, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, Francis – all who have spoken the truth to our cultures. Probably the most outstanding ad validated example is Paul VI, who in his encyclical Humanae Vitae, foresaw and warned us against the dangers of widespread acceptance of contraception. And the other popes of our time, including our present Pope Francis, have been and are prophetic voices, reminding us of God’s teachings and how they apply to our lives today.

At our baptism, we are claimed by Christ, and by the Holy Spirit we are named priest, prophet, and king. As prophets, we are called to announce Jesus by our actions, and be witnesses to “life springing forth from faith.” We are called to be good teachers ourselves, based on what we have learned from the teachings, from the reading of the Bible, but mostly from our own experience of living life as followers of Christ.

The authority of Jesus is not just something that we read about in the Bible, it is not something that no longer has relevance, it is alive and present to us in our world today. It is the authority of the best of teachers. It is the authority of God, who loves us and wants us to be filled with the Holy Spirit. So let us pray that we will listen to the voice of the Lord as He speaks to us through the scriptures and the Church, that we will embrace the teachings that lead us to Him, and therefore come to share in the Resurrection and enjoy everlasting life.