New teaching & authority

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday, First Week in Ordinary Time, Year II, 14 January 2025
Hebrews 2:5-12     <'[[[[><  +  ><]]]]'>     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...
All were amazed and asked
one another, 'What is this?
A new teaching with authority'"
(Mark 1:21-22, 27).

When does a teaching
sound new?
When the teaching makes
an impact on me.
But how?

I have been wondering, 
Jesus, of being there with you
in the synagogue that sabbath;
what was so new with your
teaching?

It was and still is the authority,
and your authority comes not
from your power nor position,
Lord Jesus: your authority is so felt
because you are one with us,
you have always been with us.

What's new with your teaching,
Jesus, is the authority that inversely
makes us free,
liberates us from fears
and false presuppositions,
never oppressive nor
subjugating.
A teaching is new when 
there is authority that does
not impose but rather
liberates others
because 
it is the Truth (John 8:32) -
Jesus himself who claimed
"A am the way the truth and the life"
(John 14:6).

More than words and power,
teaching and authority
are felt and become liberating
in the real sense,
ever new,
so fresh  
that it is not subjugating
because 
in the final analysis
it is the person
who loves and cares,
wiling to sacrifice and suffer
for another.
Exactly like Jesus.
This new year, O Lord,
make me new
a teaching so true
as a person so loving
and caring like you.
Amen.