The Word Of Peace
Homiletic Reflections On Peacemaking

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti, D. Min.

4th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

January 29, 2000

SPEAKING WITH AUTHORITY

Oratory is an abiding faculty in mankind, and the supply never greatly exceeds or falls short of the demand. It may just be at its ebb, but it has been so a hundred times before. It has also been at the flood again as often, and so surely as prosperity always follows adversity, so truly will a temporary decadence be followed by a revival in oratory. History shows us that the great orators have appeared, and the great orations have been delivered, in the revolutionary periods. Great orators have always accompanied great epochs, and whenever there have been wrongs to right, whenever there has been truth to spread, whenever there has been the vital spark of independence to kindle the flames of mountain height, then there have been heard the voices or orators, clearing the way and blazing the path for the onward march of right and justice….

Virginia State Senator Don P. Halsey delivered these words at the turn of the century. In these words is the longing for those voices that lead others to see things they never saw before. In these words is the longing for an authority that can ignite the dreams and hopes of the masses to move them to a new and glorious place. Great orators have visited this planet down through the ages. They move us with their words and actions. In our own times who can forget the words and eloquence of President John F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King, and Senator Borah of Idaho. Whenever Borah would stand to speak people would rush to the pressroom at the nation’s capitol and yell, "Borah’s up."

Yes, there is an abiding hope in the human community that God will send someone to speak to the people that will ignite their hearts and move their bodies to a new place. That was typical if Israel too. We hear God’s Word in Dt. telling us that God will send a prophet that will have God the Father’s own words in his mouth. He will not have to look for authorization from any source but from the One who sent him.

God’s great orators are the prophets and the greatest orator of all, his Son Jesus Christ. But what do I mean by this? We have no way of knowing if the prophets, or the Lord for that matter, spoke with powerful well-modulated voices. This is often what we think of when we mention great orators. Hitler was a great orator, a charismatic figure that plunged the world into the darkness night it has ever experienced. So great orators are great to have but they can also be a curse. We look for the charismatic leader, but they can take us to heaven or hell. So we must be careful whom we listen to. The prophets and Jesus of course do not speak for themselves. They speak on behalf of the one who send them. Yet, there is something that separates Jesus from the prophets. Though he spoke like them he does not use the phrase,

"thus saieth the Lord," like the prophets of old. He says, "I say to you." He speaks with an authority that the prophets do not. He is the one that speaks with the very authority of the Father. To hear his voice is to hear the voice of the Father.

This is one of the things that impressed people about Jesus’ preaching. He does not cite rabbinical opinion for support of his preaching like other teachers, or like we would today citing sources in our footnotes. Jesus understands himself to have an authority to speak on behalf of the Father. Jesus brings the truth that vanquishes evil and overcomes all illness.

Paul reminds the Corinthians that we share in the prophetic ministry of Jesus Christ. We all have different vocations in doing this. Some are called to single celibate life, others to marriage and so on… In all walks of life the prophetic office of Jesus can be made manifest in believers bringing the gospel to every aspect of life. In public life it means being a voice for those who have no voice, the poor, the disabled, the lonely and oppressed—the children of this world. In private lives it means responding to the Word in choosing to follow Jesus not because someone can deliver great oratory but because of the truth of the Word that finds its climatic expression in the sacrificial love of the cross.

We don’t have to be great orators to be prophets, though we know God will send great orators to help give the Word a new vibrancy and enfleshment to address the "signs of the times." Not all will be great orators but all can be great prophets in confronting evil, curing illness and being living testimonies to eloquence and power of God’s Word in eloquent lives that shout God’s Word to the whole world.

The recent initiative of the Archdiocese to set up Parish Social Ministry networks is one way to do this. All it requires of members of the parish is to be a member of a phone tree or e-mail tree and send letters, calls or e-mails to State Legs. concerning various pieces of leg that support the moral ethical and justice vision of the Church. It only takes about 5-10 minutes a month. Such will be able to be prophetic voice to our community. Not everyone can do everything. But we can all do something. In such ways we, in cooperation with the Lord’s call, blaze a path for the onward march of right and justice…

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti, D. Min.
Created January 29, 2000