Word to the Wise
Tuesday, January 15, 2013 - Tuesday in the 1st Week in Ordinary Time
[Heb 2:5-12 and Mark 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.
Years ago, when I was a law student at Tulane, I learned very soon how much the world of jurisprudence relies on what has gone before. This took two forms. In Common Law jurisdictions, the "doctrine" of "stare decisis," [previous decisions] is sacred. In "Civil Law" [rooted in Roman Law] jurisdictions, the term was "jurisprudence constant," wisdom accumulated through steady interpretation of a law over a long period of time. Either way, it was clear that one did not stand on one's own authority, but on the authority of respected judges or legal sages of the past. Something similar to this was in existence at the time of Jesus. The scribes were the legal authorities of Jesus' time. However, they relied heavily on the interpretations of the past. This was not monolithic in the sense that every scribe taught the same way, because there were various "schools" of interpretation. Each had its own favorite authorities to quote. What was different about Jesus was that he didn't rely on these authorities! He presented himself as an authority on his own!!!
Of course, we have the benefit of our faith and knowledge about Jesus from centuries of reflection, but someone in the audience that day in the synagogue would not have known how Jesus could speak the way he did. We might have replied, "That's what YOU say!" In other words, we would be faced with someone and something NEW! In fact, we can ask ourselves NOW who are the real authorities in our lives? When we make decisions about our faith or our lives in general, how authoritative is the teaching of Jesus? How authoritative is the teaching of the "magisterium" of the church? Do we accept any "authority" at all? The answers, in our heart of hearts, might surprise us! AMEN
config
view
logs
3840.0 KB
100 ms
4
