1st SEPTEMBER. TUESDAY IN WEEK 22

1.1Thes 5:1-6,9-11

2. Lk 4:31-37

MEDITATIONS AND REFLECTIONS

"The cure of Demoniac"

Authority is something that is part and parcel of our communities and society at large. How can we describe authority? for example  a person has authority because he/she is author and the maker. He is one who speaks with reliability and credibility. God is the supreme authority since He is the creator and the author of all creatures.

As it was taught and quoted by somebody that by divine institution, the authority in the church resides in the hierarchy.  It does not come from people but it comes from God. On the other hand, civil authority can come in various ways but God too. Christians in this perspective are invited to pay reverence  to the civil authority as representing God in the temporal sphere. Therefore, it should be understood that the conflict for  the Christian should not exist between his /her religious loyalty and his/her loyalty to his country. They both allude to God in different spheres of life.

Jesus in today's gospel spoke with authority because He spoke the word of God as no one had spoken it before. The gospel portrays Jesus as the ultimate healer of both physical, social and spiritual illnesses, including demonic possessions. What is common in the healings that was performed by Jesus is faith of people in Jesus. We are invited that in we do every in the name of Jesus and faith in him. The faith in Jesus should motivate us to care for our brothers and sisters in need especially to our brothers and sisters undergoing suffering When the Rabbis taught they supported their statements quotes from other authorities. The prophet spoke with delegated authority such as, " Thus says the Lord." when Jesus spoke he needed no reference to back up his statements. Jesus is well known to be authority incarnate, the word of God made flesh. When he spoke, God spoke. The challenging question today is how do we react and respond to the word of God? Do we listen to it with selective submission or with full assent of faith and obedience?

Jesus as we have heard from the gospel commanded the evil spirits with authority and power to come out. Jesus took the existence of evil very seriously. With calm authority he expelled the evil spirits from the man in the synagogue. Lesson, what has this to do with our lives as Christians? when tempted we encounter evil in ourselves when we give in to temptations, when we do what actually do not intend to do, when we ignore the voice of our conscience. We encounter evil in the persons around us, in our society and in the World. Once we encounter evils in our lives what do we do? St. Paul leads us to the basic attitude, to follow the urging of the Holy Spirit which bars evil from entering and does not allow spreading in one's life.