Homily for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2021
Then they came to Capernaum,
and on the sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and taught.
The people were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.
In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit;
he cried out, “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,
“Quiet! Come out of him!”
The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him.
All were amazed and asked one another,
“What is this?
A new teaching with authority.
He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.”
His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.-Mark 1:21-29
Teaching with “authority”! The literal Greek word is a word that means “power,” that is, we have a teaching from a teacher who has the power to imprint his teaching in the hearts of his disciples with no need of study or the written word. This is why the people were astonished: because “he taught them with authority and not as the scribes,” that is, he taught them not as one explaining a written text he had studied, but as one who immediately, taught, formed the hearts of his hearers.
St. Thomas Aquinas describes his teaching thus:
This manner of teaching pertained to Christ as to the most sublime of teachers, that he should impress his teaching immediately on the hearts of his hearers.
As St. Paul tells us, the law of the spirit of life is inscribed, “not in ink, but by the Spirit of the Living God, not on stony tablets, but on the fleshy tablets of the heart” (2 Cor. 3:3).
To be sure, Our Lord expounded the scriptures, but with this crucial difference: he was the principal author of the scriptures. The sacred authors’ words were inspired by him; they were founded on his authority.
If we think about the “surpassing riches of Christ,” we will understand that so great is the excellence of his doctrine that no writing, even the inspired words of scripture, can contain it. In fact, in a compelling refutation of sola scriptura, St. Thomas tells us, “If Christ had put his teaching in writing, men would think no more highly of his teaching than what Scripture contains.” And as St. John the Beloved Disciple wrote, “the whole world” could not contain all the books that could be written of what he said and did (John 21:25).
The fact is, we will have all eternity to contemplate and marvel, in the light of his unveiled divinity, the height and depth and breadth of his love and his teaching.
You see, the secret of the Savior’s teaching is that it is personal, it is living; it unites the heart of a believer to him as to a friend, a brother, a spouse. Its power is felt in the depths of the heart and is principally found out in prayer and meditation on his mysteries, aided by the powerful means of grace, his holy sacraments.
Yes, he wants us to know him through the sacred scriptures, but only so as to come closer to him—not simply as the object of a doctrinal definition (which he is, no doubt) but as the one who gives us the power to believe and hope and love and persevere, even if our memory of the scriptures fail or our faith is sorely tried.
As John, who heard the word of life directly and immediately from the Sacred Heart on which he lay his head, tells us, he was the “true light that enlightens every man,” coming into the world (John 1:9). It is this enlightenment that enables us to be scribes of the new law; not just practitioners of texts and quotes and sources, but as friends and beloved brethren of the Word of Life.
The people in Capernaum began to feel this reality, and Our Lord rewarded them for it, for it was in their synagogue that he gave them audibly, verbally, a new teaching: “The one who feeds on me will live because of me.” A quick loving glance at the crucifix or the tabernacle will be enough to convince and confirm the Catholic heart. Here is the authority on which our faith rests: Christ alone and all his loving works.