Gospel of 1 September 2020
Tuesday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time
Luke 4:31-37
'I know who you are: the Holy One of God'
Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath. And his teaching made a deep impression on them because he spoke with authority.
In the synagogue there was a man who was possessed by the spirit of an unclean devil, and it shouted at the top of its voice, ‘Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God.’ But Jesus said sharply, ‘Be quiet! Come out of him!’ And the devil, throwing the man down in front of everyone, went out of him without hurting him at all. Astonishment seized them and they were all saying to one another, ‘What teaching! He gives orders to unclean spirits with authority and power and they come out.’ And reports of him went all through the surrounding countryside.
Reflexion
One of the things that must have deeply impressed everyone who heard our Lord Himself teach, was the fact that He spoke with such authority about things that other people knew nothing about. He seems to read the thoughts of other people's minds, discerns the presence of evil spirits, answers questions before they are even asked. He speaks of unseen things with familiarity, as though He had seen them Himself. He describes what God is like. He predicts future events with pinpoint accuracy. Where did this authority come from?
The first reading provides us with the answer - the Holy Spirit. Yesterday, at the start of His public ministry, we heard how our Lord read from the Prophet Isaiah about the mission of the Messiah, the One Anointed by the Spirit, and after reading this powerful text, He proclaims that He is the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy. His authority in teaching, healing, performing miracles, comes from the Holy Spirit.
In the first reading, St Paul is writing to the Corinthians, a people who were proud of their cherished legacy of philosophy and human wisdom, a people who would judge any teacher by the strength of his knowledge. Knowledge equals authority. Even after the church had begun in Corinth, the Christians were still exalting the wisdom of the philosophers.
But St Paul has shown how the cross of Christ undercuts all the pride, all the boasting of man, and his power and glory. Instead, Paul speaks of what he calls "the secret and hidden wisdom of God which is made available to us by the Spirit," (1 Corinthians 2:7). This secret wisdom is intended for our glorification. It is something permanent and not subject to mutation or changing fads. And finally, this wisdom is undiscoverable by natural processes. You cannot learn about it in university; you cannot take a course in it at any secular school. It is only made accessible and available to the person who is open to the Holy Spirit, “the spiritual man.” The spiritual man is “able to judge the value of everything.”
As we boast of scientific knowledge and human accomplishments, we must humbly acknowledge that we cannot find God by searching on our own. Man, despite his scientific, psychological, and philosophical knowledge and investigations, will never find his way to the heart of God. Only God Himself must disclose Himself, must open Himself to us. That He has done by means of the Spirit of God - only the Spirit of God can reveal the things of God. The Lord Jesus Himself appeared as a man in order that we might have a visible demonstration of what God is like. The simplest answer to the question, "What is God like?" is to say He is like Jesus, under all circumstances. But it is the work of the Spirit to show us what Jesus is like. Without the Spirit, we remain ignorant fools in spiritual matters and have no authority to speak of them.