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January 25, 2018
Father Joseph PrevitaliWhat makes Jesus Christ different from all the other prophets and religious teachers of human history?
“A prophet like me will the Lord, your God, raise up for you from among your own kin,” Moses promises in our first reading for this Sunday (Deuteronomy 18:15). This is quite a promise because Moses was different from all the other prophets. Moses conversed with God “face to face, as a man is wont to speak to his friend” (Exodus 33:11). He taught the people from the authority of his direct encounter with God, “face to face.” He did not have to rely on any other human witnesses. God was his only teacher.
But there was still something imperfect about Moses’ prophecy: “I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face thou canst not see” (Exodus 33:23). The Catholic theological tradition, following St. Augustine, interprets these passages about Moses to mean that Moses saw God’s essence in the Beatific Vision only at certain times and in a passing manner, as in a rapture, and not in a stable and permanent way, as we hope to see God in heaven. Moses’ prophecy, then, was based on the imperfect vision of God, coming and going in moments in his life. Yet he taught from this imperfect vision of God. This is what he meant by a “prophet like me”: God would give to His people a prophet who would teach from the Vision of God.
How does God fulfill this promise?
We see Jesus’ prophecy in action in our Gospel for this Sunday. “The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes,” St. Mark (1:21) records. Jesus shows Himself to be one of a kind, different from the other religious teachers of His time, because He does not rely on human authority or human witnesses for the truth of His teaching. In the Sermon on the Mount, especially, He even shows Himself to be greater than Moses, adding to what Moses had taught already, presuming Himself capable of interpreting and explaining the true meaning of Moses’ teaching: “You have heard that it was said … but I say unto to you …” (Matthew 5-7).
In our Gospel passage, Jesus’ teaching authority is confirmed by His power over evil spirits and other miracles (Mark 1:23-28). The people of His time make the connection right away: Just as He cures diseases and casts out demons with authority, so also He teaches the truth with authority. Jesus is able to work miracles and cast out demons by His own authority because He is God made man. This means that His human nature is the instrument of His divinity. Whatever He does with His human soul and human body, He does it with the power of His divine nature. Therefore, when He speaks a word of command, it is God who commands. When He touches the leper to give healing, it is God who touches and heals. Likewise, when He opens His human mind and His mouth to teach doctrine, it is God who is teaching with a human mind and human language.
For this reason, the Catholic theological tradition has always affirmed that Jesus, always filled with His divine knowledge, also possesses a human knowledge that is most complete and perfect. This means, above all, that Jesus, from the first moment of His conception in the womb of Our Lady, sees the essence of God in the Beatific Vision. More perfect even than Moses, Jesus sees God face-to-face always in His Beatific Vision. This is what makes Him different from all the other prophets of human history. His teaching is “with authority” and He is a “prophet like [Moses]” because He teaches always from His Vision of God.
He is God Himself teaching us with a human mind and a human tongue! He is Truth itself! This is the glorious fulfillment of the promise of Moses: the New Moses, Jesus Christ, Who teaches with authority the truth we need to get to Heaven. “Listen to Him” (Matthew 3:17).
Father Joseph Previtali is currently studying at the Pontifical North American College in Rome.