Homily for 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time

I fight authority, authority always wins!  True words from singer John Mellencamp.  Authority always does seem to win.

We all should know quite a bit about authority.  We would first learn authority from our parents, then perhaps from teachers, supervisors and when we became parents ourselves.  We are taught to respect authority in civil matters when it comes to obeying laws, how we treat our fellow man, even that dreaded task of paying our taxes.

As people of faith, there is one authority we have no need to fight; the authority of Jesus Christ and His bride, the Catholic Church!

On this 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time we have a shift from "calling and vocation" to "authority".  In today's reading from Mark's Gospel we see Jesus teaching for the first time.  This is no ordinary teaching for Scripture tells us that Jesus taught with authority.  So much so that even an unclean spirit obeyed Jesus.  All commented that Jesus taught with authority, a new teaching!  Now Mark does not give us any details on what Jesus was teaching but rather focuses on authority.  There is also another important aspect to this story.  By now Jesus had been gathering his followers, performing miracles and healings and now he is teaching with authority.  Still many people and certainly the synagogue officials did not know who Jesus is.  Yet the unclean spirit identified Jesus as the Holy One of God!  Even the demons and unclean spirits know who Jesus is yet the people miss the clues.  That happens all around us today.  Despite 2,000 years of Church teaching, Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, many miss Jesus, the one who teaches with authority, as the Holy One of God!

How do these teachings continue to be passed on to this day?  How does each subsequent generation know of the Holy One of God?  Where do we find authority today?  Let's be clear, all authority is a gift from God and the teaching authority of Jesus is still that of Jesus.  But in God's plan, by his holy design and perfect will, that authority lies in what we call the Magesterium - the teaching authority of Holy Mother Church!

We understand the Magesterium as the teaching of the Pope, Christ's Vicar on Earth and the Bishops in union with the Pope.  Church teaching tells us that when teaching definitively on matters of faith and morals we can be assured that this is teaching with authority, the authority of Jesus Christ.  We can also be assured that, as promised, when teaching on matters of faith and morals, that teaching is protected by the Holy Spirit.  The Pope, when teaching ex-cathedra, from the Chair of Peter, is protected from all error.  Now that is authority!  The Magesterium, the teaching authority of the Church, along with Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, combine to make up the full deposit of faith, the three-legged stool that guides us to holiness and salvation.

Do we not need such a teaching authority today?  Indeed we do.  It is the Magesterium called upon in every generation to guide the people of God through the storms that an ever increasing secular world and lifestyle throw at us.  Could the Christians of the first few centuries ever have imagined that their descendants, you and I, would be dealing with things like abortion on demand, late-term abortions, hideous forms of chemical, artificial birth control that closes the door to life, making human beings dependent on the chemical companies getting rich while sickening those who take these drugs in more and varied ways as the science reveals the true horror.  How about euthanasia and legalized killing, like just happened in Oregon, and the day that once great nations would dare to redefine marriage.  It is the Magesterium of the Catholic Church that has, is and will continue to teach with authority that we are to do God's will not the will of culture, societies, media and politicians hell-bent on replacing God with the power they think they have.  Yes it is the magisterium, leading all of us, the people of God, in opposing what is wrong and doing what is right.  Oh yes, sometimes, many times, we stumble and we must acknowledge that even many of our own do not follow Church teaching.  Unlike many other once relevant Christian traditions that bend and sway and change every time they place their finger in the air, Holy Mother Church has held firm in these important life issues.  As the bride of Christ, the same Christ that teaches with authority, the Church must teach with that same authority.

What does this mean f or us this week; what can we do?  We are challenged this week, by today's Gospel and today's social challenges, to know what the true teaching authority of the Catholic Church is all about.  We must go to the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  If you don't have one, why not?  There is not one Catholic family that should be without one in each home.  Of course, in today's world, it is on the internet.  Google it!  If you don't know what Google is, ask your kids and grandkids.  Now once you have access to the Catechism, our homework this week is to carefully read paragraphs 74-100.  If we read this carefully and thoughtfully, we will learn much of what we need to know about the teaching authority of the Catholic Church, the Magesterium.  Please commit to read these sections of the Catechism, at least twice in the week ahead.  And since in all things we are called to prayer, this week a beautiful and special prayer is available to each of us.  This coming Friday, 1st Friday, we have all day Adoration and evening Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.  Some of us avail ourselves of this beautiful devotion and opportunity to pray but some of us have not been to Adoration and Benediction in a long, long time.  What better week, when the teaching authority of our Church is attacked with more and more evil, than to come and participate in Adoration and even Benediction.  Please read the bulletin for times and details.

Yep, when we fight authority, we are told authority always wins.  In the authority of Jesus Christ, and in his bride, Holy Mother Church, we have no need to fight.  And we should take great joy that this authority always wins; but it is a win for each and everyone of us, who does not fight it, but embraces this authority.  Yes, following the authority of Jesus Christ and His Holy Catholic Church, we win!