Tuesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

Ice forms on a crystal pond

 Lectionary: 306

The people were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.

Many Americans have been flustered and frustrated by the pronouncements of Anthony Fauci and his colleagues since the pandemic arrived in America. They speak with authority, and yet they use words like probably, maybe, likely, and we expect. If they're so sure, why can't they say, "This will happen?" 

My favorite philosopher, John Macmurray, explained there are three levels of being: the mechanical, organic, and personal. The mechanical is measurable and we describe it with facts. It has clear dimensions of weight, distance, density, temperature, time and so forth. We can measure gravity and momentum and predict things like sunrise and sunset with absolute certainty. Studies of the mechanical level of being are called the hard sciences. 

Soft sciences concern the organic level; i.e. life. Because it is less predictable we describe it with statistics. If Monsanto plants a million seeds they expect a high percentage to germinate and flourish. Not all will. It may be worth investigating why the few didn't but a very high yield is satisfying. Virology is a soft science; epidemiologists describe how viruses act without knowing precisely how it's subatomic particles interact in their quantum dimensions. But with research and experience, they can speak with authority. 

Finally, there is the personal level of reality. Here we speak of people, and how they respond to situations and challenges. No matter how much you know about a person, you cannot predict with certainty what they will do. If you study enough people with their traditions, customs, and habits you might make a reasonably accurate prediction of what millions will do among a billion. But they might hear of your prediction and act differently! 

I suppose epidemiologists also calculate the politics of a given nation to predict how they'll respond to an epidemic; but their statistics are far less reliable than those whose subjects are contained in glass tubes in the laboratories. The very people who fume at Dr. Fauci guarantee his predictions will fail! 

I think of these mechanical, organic, and political authorities when I think of Jesus. What kind was his? Whence came his wisdom, knowledge, and predictions? 

The question is personal and demands a personal response. I am familiar with the Baltimore Catechism and the Catechism of the Catholic Church; I know our traditions and magisterium, and I can tell you what they say. But when they say Jesus's authority is divine and he comes from God, they only point us in the direction of an answer. 

When the people in today's gospel heard Jesus they were astonished at his assurance. He seemed to know God -- whom he called Abba -- like no one else. He cited familiar scriptures, and read them as loudly as the next fellow, with all the assurance of an lector who has studied the text. But his confidence shone brilliantly, beyond that of scribes and pharisees.  

"What just happened?" they might have asked. As of yet, there were no words to describe their experience. In time the disciples would begin to see; revelation came with the passing weeks and months. In Saint Mark's eighth chapter, as spokesman of the disciples, Saint Peter will declare, “You are the Messiah.”

But then Jesus warned them not to tell anyone, because they knew the word messiah but they didn't know what Jesus meant by it. That would appear in the fifteenth chapter when the centurion declared, "Truly this was the Son of God." 

The Gospel invites us to be amazed like the people in Capernaum, the disciples on the road, and the centurion at Calvary. We're hearing a divine authority which commands people -- that third and most unpredictable level of reality -- to believe God's word and keep it. Our behavior will be no more predictable than that of less inspired persons but it will be wiser and more reasonable than the madness of this world.