“If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” I wonder what meaning this psalm refrain has for us? We can open our hearts to God’s voice and allow his voice to lead us and guide us. Or we can close our hearts to God’s voice and not listen to what it is saying. It may be challenging for us to distinguish God’s voice from all the noise and distractions that fill up our days.
So, who do we see as the authority in our lives? What a good question today, since today’s readings all deal with the theme of authority. When the crowds heard Jesus teaching in the synagogue, when they saw him draw a demon out of a man at his command, they recognized that Jesus was not just one of the common scribes or teachers, but that he was a man with an authority they had never seen before. And if we are like these crowds, if we recognize Jesus' special authority, how do we allow that authority to interact with our lives? This authority has to be more than a whim in our lives, more than an impetuous impulse. Jesus’ authority has to be foundational as to how we truly live. It is good for us to be passionate about something that brings us joy. A lot of us here really love to do things such as hunting, reading or gardening, exercising or following our favorite sports team. Those things may be important parts of our lives and our identities, but we cannot give those things priority in our lives over God, we can’t make them our idols. We need to be passionate about our faith and our relationship with Jesus beyond anything else.
Allowing our faith to have authority is sometimes easier said that done. Unfortunately, many Americans have a negative view of authority of any kind; nevertheless, authority is an important part of life, especially in our life of faith. If we are obedient to our faith, we recognize the authority of the Church. Within the Church, there are several sources of authority. We not only have the authority of Sacred Scripture and Tradition, but also the teachings of the Magisterium of the Church, comprised of the pope and the college of bishops. As I am a priest, I take this authority seriously, just as all of us as Catholics should. When I meet with someone as a priest, when I up here preaching or celebrating mass, I am not just Lincoln, an ordinary, everyday person, but rather a priest who is representing the Church, who is teaching, preaching, and standing up for what our faith teaches.
Many of Jesus’ contemporaries had a difficult time accepting his authority. They did not deny his mighty deeds of power, such as the healing of the man possessed by an unclean spirit in today's Gospel. The crowds were troubled by the source of Jesus' authority. What authority could Jesus have, this humble carpenter from Nazareth? Is he acting by an authority from God, or is it from the world, from the lesser gods and spirits? Through Jesus' healing and teaching at the synagogue, through the manner in which he acts honorably and not shamefully, the people start spreading Jesus' upright reputation throughout the region of Galilee.
As modern Americans, most of us believe we have much greater power over our lives in comparison to those in the ancient world who believed in spirits. Yet, are we really giving God, the Church, and our faith authority in our lives? Or, are we letting an improperly formed conscience and the voices of the false prophets in our secular society control over what we believe as a part of our Catholic faith?
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