January 2024 Allocutio

Allocutio January 2024. by Fr. Benjamin Saliba

The Fruit of Loyalty is Obedience

The fruit of Loyalty is Obedience – When Moses speaks, Israel listens!  The man who would bring them from slavery to freedom – the listening ear, the prophetic word, the friend of God.  Just before we put too much into this man, he today gives us another instruction – The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like myself, from among yourselves, from your own brothers; to him you MUST listen.  Can you imagine after all the Israelites had gone through, after all they had witnessed with Moses, they are to expect someone greater than him who they MUST listen to?  This person is to spread the good news and the people are to listen to his COMMANDS.

There is a lot riding on this new prophet, this NEW MOSES.  Moses realises that the responsibility of leading Israel into Glory is not on his shoulders anymore – it will be with the one whom God sends – his son – our Lord and Saviour.

It is only through Jesus that we can have the fulfilment of the Law, its perfection and right interpretation.  Moses warns of the genesis of false prophets and even their punishment should they use the name of God to preach their false messages.  The question now becomes, how do we know who is preaching the right message – the message of truth which will lead us to a genuine relationship with God?  The answer is to listen!  Whilst the call to live a Christian life might be a difficult one, it is certainly not worth abandoning.  Our Psalmist proclaims – if today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

In a world that has become so desensitized to sin, hearing the voice of the Lord can be daunting, we can feel excluded or even made to feel guilty about listening to the voice of our Loving Jesus.  When we hear his voice, we would rather distract ourselves with temporal activity.  Why might this be?  It could be that a fear overcomes us – this fear resembles the seed that falls on rocky ground or shallow soil.  We know deep down inside that listening to the voice of the Lord involves conversion of heart and mind, and this is something we don’t want to do.  We don’t want to do it because it leads to a radical change in the way we live our lives.

When this happens take consolation from our psalmist – don’t look at the troubles of the world, rather look to our God in thanksgiving – let us kneel before the God who made us, for he is our God and we the people who belong to his pasture, the flock that is led by his hands.  If we have trust in the Lord, we will be led to safely live a peaceful and joyous life.  This is –  in a week where we celebrated the conversion of St Paul, and reflect on his letter to the Corinthians – how St Paul was able to so effectively minister to the people of God.  St Paul didn’t look to the past, hold onto grudges, refuse to forgive himself – rather he leaned on God, he received grace from God and looked forward.  In doing so he was so united to his Lord and Saviour that he was able to clearly teach the ways of Christ to the early Church and gentile nations.

This continuation of clear teaching came from his master – it was something he knew he MUST do because it was done so faithfully from the master himself.  Jesus is in perfect communion with the Father – he and the Father are one.  It is how Jesus is so perfectly a teacher and communicator of the faith.  Jesus knew that he would pass this onto his followers and onlookers.  When it seemed as though there was a hard teaching to grasp, Jesus would astonish the people by connecting a miracle to his teaching.  In the instance of our Gospel today, the casting out of an unclean spirit.  The people were not only astounded by the teaching and direction, but also by this exorcism.  At once Jesus’ fame started to spread through the region. 

Today, we have Jesus’ teaching clearly defined for us – the apostles were commissioned to go out and baptise all nations, teaching them everything he had taught in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit.  The spirit would give his followers the words to speak, the clarity to speak them and in the organisation of his church, the authority to bind teachings, forgive sins, and perform many miracles.

Today we ask ourselves, have our hearts become hardened to Church teaching, what is stopping me from listening to the voice of my God who created me, do I give God the time to actually listen to his commands, his promptings.  If the answer is fear, neglect, indifferentism, then lets call on the name of the Lord – remind ourselves of all the good he has done for us – the sacrifice he made for us and ask for greater courage and a greater capacity to love like he loves.