The crowds following Jesus during his lifetime said he taught with “authority” because he lived what he preached, Pope Francis said.
“Authority is seen in this: coherence and witness,” the pope said on 14th January during his early morning Mass in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae.
In the day’s Gospel reading, Mk 1:21-28, people in the crowd remark on the authority of Jesus and how “he commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.”
Jesus’ exercise of authority, the pope said, is authentic because it can be seen. “What is seen? Coherence. Jesus had authority because there was coherence between what he taught and what he did, how he lived,” he said.
The scribes in the Gospel, on the other hand, act in such a way that Jesus tells the people, “Do what they say, but not what they do.”
The scribes suffered from “pastoral schizophrenia” – saying one thing and doing another, the pope said. They were prime examples of what Jesus often called “hypocrites.”
Picture: Pope Francis celebrates Mass in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae at the Vatican on 14th January 2020. (CNS photo/Vatican Media).
