2012

What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him."

We have seen that liturgically, the Liturgy of the Word that begins Ordinary Time after the Christmas Season speaks to us of vocation (call and response), to formation in Christ and "his ways," to continuous and consistent surrender to Jesus' divine authority. Hence today's readings so proclaim: "A prophet like me will the Lord, your God, raise up …to him you shall listen" (Deuteronomy), and "I am telling you this for your own benefit …for the sake of propriety and adherence to the Lord without distraction" (St. Paul). Make no mistake, from the letters of Paul, John, and Peter, from the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John—that is, from the writings of the New Testament forward—we are meant to take the same journey as those who heard THE GOOD NEWS for the very first time: vocation, formation, surrender.

Once I was speaking to a gentleman who was Caribbean-born and at a young age had made his way to the United States where he received a good education and was eventually hired into federal level law enforcement. Some years into his career, still relatively young, he suffered a stroke and subsequently required a multiple bypass surgery. As he had come to understand that I was a priest, he volunteered to me that he no longer believed in God "because God is supposed to be all good." He simply concluded there could not be an all good God, because such a God would not have brought him that far only to lose it all and be handicapped the rest of his life. There had been other tragedies in his family which of course only bolstered his ideas that no really good and caring God would allow such things to happen to good people. "What had he done as a basically good guy to have these things happen to him and his family?" he asked.

Of course there is no completely satisfying answer to this good man's question. That bad things happen to good people will be forever at least part mystery. Having said this, it must be stated from the Christian point of view that, though we may never know the answer in this life—even Jesus, God's own very good son, was not himself spared the horribleness that besets so many on this Earth. Whether it be evil perpetrated by out-and-out evil people or cruel deprivation and loss caused by natural disaster, good Christians schooled in Jesus' ways will respond with faith, hope, and love—because HE did. That is what he modeled for us.

The gentleman I spoke of heard me rehearse this response to his question and actually said, "OK, well I hadn't really thought about that angle." So another truth is, we can be among the best educated by this world's standards and still have missed out on Jesus' teachings—new teachings with authority. If we are well schooled and formed in Jesus' "gospel ways," at least we have the chance to meet the greater mysteries of life's tragedies and foibles with faith, hope, and love. Then Jesus' power "even over unclean spirits" of bewilderment and despair can see us through our crosses to promised resurrections.

Stewardship and today's scriptures

Moses told the people, "The Lord will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own kinsmen." God still provides among His people the gifts and talents necessary to continue the work of His Church. What gifts are yours to share?