How Authority Works

Jan 10: Tuesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

Jan 10, 2023

In the modern era, “authority” has a negative connotation. We don’t like anyone telling us what to do. But it’s inherent in our nature that God holds authority over everything: the birds and animals, us humans, even angels and demons.

Reading I

Heb 2:5-12

It was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. Instead, someone has testified somewhere:

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

    What is man that you are mindful of him,
        or the son of man that you care for him?
    You made him for a little while lower than the angels;
        you crowned him with glory and honor,
        subjecting all things under his feet.

In “subjecting” all things to him, he left nothing not “subject to him.” Yet at present we do not see “all things subject to him,” but we do see Jesus “crowned with glory and honor” because he suffered death, he who “for a little while” was made “lower than the angels,” that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

For it was fitting that he, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the leader to their salvation perfect through suffering. He who consecrates and those who are being consecrated all have one origin. Therefore, he is not ashamed to call them “brothers” saying:

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

    I will proclaim your name to my brethren,
    in the midst of the assembly I will praise you.

“Lower than the angels” is the normal state of human beings, but not for the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. God brought himself down to our level, and lived life exactly like us (except without sin).

At the time, some people denied Jesus’ divinity because he died, and God can’t die. The author of Hebrews is saying the opposite: God became man, died, rose again, and therefore, we will rise again. Jesus, by calling us brothers and sisters, isn’t debasing himself, but lifting us up.

Responsorial Psalm

8:2ab and 5, 6-7, 8-9

R.   You have given your Son rule over the works of your hands.
O LORD, our Lord,
   how glorious is your name over all the earth!
What is man that you should be mindful of him,
   or the son of man that you should care for him?
R.   You have given your Son rule over the works of your hands.
You have made him little less than the angels,
   and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands,
   putting all things under his feet.
R.   You have given your Son rule over the works of your hands.
All sheep and oxen,
   yes, and the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air, the fishes of the sea,
   and whatever swims the paths of the seas.
R.   You have given your Son rule over the works of your hands.

This is the psalm Hebrews is quoting as “someone has testified somewhere.”1

Compared to God, humans aren’t a big deal (he doesn’t have to be “mindful” of us), but he still gave us power and authority over the Earth. But as someone has testified somewhere, “With great power, there must also come great responsibility.”2 We have to take care of those things that God has entrusted to us.

Alleluia

See 1 Thes 2:13

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Receive the word of God, not as the word of men,
but as it truly is, the word of God.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Although God inspired the Holy Scriptures, and didn’t write the words Himself, you’re still to take them as God’s. Because that’s how authority works, it passes from the highest rank to the lowest, and still has to be obeyed.

Gospel

Mk 1:21-28

Jesus came to Capernaum with his followers, and on the sabbath he 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.

We never actually hear what Jesus taught on this particular day. Like many preachers, Jesus probably had themes and turns of phrase that he returned to over and over.3 The point Mark wants to make here is that Jesus had authority in Himself, not by quoting or analyzing scripture, like the scribes.4

So, when He tells the demons to come out of the possessed man, he’s not just asking them politely. It’s a command, because Jesus, the Son of God, has real authority. Any authority priests, bishops, or us in the congregation have, comes through Jesus. We don’t have any on our own.