He spoke with authority

2 SEPTEMBER (Lk 4,31-37)

Men and unclean spirits see the difference that exists between Jesus Christ and every other man. To the devils it is a difference of immediate obedience. He imposes silence and they must be silent. He commands them to abandon a man and they must do so immediately. They know that they must submit to every word that Jesus speaks to them. It is a matter not of a temporary, but permanent, stable and forever submission. No opposition, no disobedience and no controversy. Jesus says, and they perform every command instantly.

The unclean spirits know who Christ is: the Holy One of God. His Messiah. They know that He is the true God that became true man. Against Him they have no power and no strength. They cannot resist him. They owe him a prompt and immediate obedience. He is their God, Lord and Creator. They know that He came to the earth for their downfall. They know and tell him it. Jesus compels them to silence. Some truths cannot be revealed for now. Now, it is the time to keep them hidden. Then, the time will come to reveal them and only at that precise moment in history they will be revealed.

Even people who have some contact with the Lord Jesus make the difference between him and every other teacher in Israel. Their teachers have no authority. They may also have infinite knowledge and be a pit of doctrine. But they do not reveal any authority. Why? The answer is simple. They are not in the truth of God, they are not in the Word, they are not in the science of the Most High and do not live in the doctrine they teach. There is a separation between the Word and life, faith and life, doctrine and life, science and life. Authority comes neither from science and nor from doctrine. It comes from the Holy Spirit that rules our history and guides our steps.

God is the Authority, source, spring and fount of all other authority. If you become one with Him, then you have a word of authority, because the Lord communicates himself and lives with his whole self in his faithful. Living in them, he gives them all power, all authority, all science and all wisdom. God is inseparable from what he is. He gives himself in his person and in everything that his person contains. Since the Authority is the essence of God, who possesses the true and living God in his heart, he is also clothed with his authority and with every divine power. Christ is God himself and that is why he possesses all authority of the Father. He commands and all obeys his Word.

Jesus then went down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee. He taught them on the Sabbath, and they were astonished at his teaching because he spoke with authority. In the synagogue there was a man with the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out in a loud voice, “Ha! 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!” Jesus rebuked him and said, “Be quiet! Come out of him!” Then the demon threw the man down in front of them and came out of him without doing him any harm. They were all amazed and said to one another, “What is there about his word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.” And news of him spread everywhere in the surrounding region.

The crowds see in Jesus God working through Him. Jesus is more than Moses, the great Mediator of God that has shaken Egypt and the desert with the wonders worked by him. He is more than Elijah, whose prayer was so powerful as to close and open the heavens, as to give life to a dead guy, as to give flour and oil to a woman for more than three years. He is more than Elisha, the prophet who performed miracles over nature and men. He is more than any other prophet and man of God of the Old Testament. Suffices just his word to silence unclean spirits and to free a man from all sickness. Suffices just a word to create a new hope in hearts. The crowds see all this power and authority and declare it, shout it out, make it a Good news and a Gospel. It is right then that we ask ourselves: what do the crowds see in us? What do they certify of us? Do they make of our evangelizing and missionary work a Gospel and a Good news?

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us of high spiritual authority.