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A team of 200 priests comment on daily Gospel
Liturgical day: Sunday 4th (B) in Ordinary Time
Gospel text (Mk 1,21-28): In the city of Capernaum, on a Sabbath, Jesus went to the synagogue and began to teach. The people were astonished at the way He taught, for He spoke as one having authority and not like the teachers of the Law (…). All the people were astonished and they wondered, «What is this? With what authority He preaches!» (…).
Jesus, Master with “authority”
EDITORIAL TEAM
evangeli.net
(based on texts by Benedict XVI)
(Città del Vaticano, Vatican)
Today, we see Jesus ”sitting” on the “chair” of Moses. Today is the synagogue; other days will be the “mountain” or the seashore. The bottom line, however, is that he teaches not like the teachers who are trained to do in schools; he sits there just like “Moses the greatest”, which extends the Alliance to all the people: Jesus was a “true Israelite” and at the same time, he was beyond Judaism.
The Rabbis also sat in the chair of Moses and therefore had authority. Their teachings had to be heard and accepted, although they lived contradicted lives and were not authority (it was received from “Other”). The expressions of amazement at Jesus Christ are not related to the rhetoric quality of his words, but the obvious claim to be at the same level as the Lawgiver, the same level as God: “I tell you…”
—What’s new is that You, Jesus, are God, and therefore you are Master of all men.