Jesus finished this discourse and let the crowds spelled out at his teaching. The reason was that he taught with authority and not fight their scribes. This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
But there is a connection. It may not be so obvious, but there is a connection as I see it between the first and the second readings today. And of course these first readings we are following the history of the Jewish people, and the cycle is almost monotonous. God speaks to them, he brings them to their knees, they listen to his voice, and for a while for a while, they're fainting. And then they are attracted to their neighbors, to their immoralities, to their polytheism, to their human sacrifice.
They are attracted to these things. You'll say, name of all that's holy, what attracted them? Well, something attracted them to that is this is the story. You have this little nucleus of God's chosen people surrounded by what we call pagans. And there's this tug of war.
God speaks to them, he attracts them, they submit to him, or abide. Then they succumb to the urgings, the pleasures, the attractions of the flesh, and they move over to pagan practices. And then down comes the hand of the God. He punishes them. They Today we've heard now about the Babylonian captivity.
That's what it what it is. Here the king from the tigers and Euphrates comes across, goes west, takes over Israel, takes everything worthwhile including the human element, and takes them all back to the battle. So once again, God exercises his justice upon his people. Now, the story of the Hebrews as they wander, as they go to God, as they become his faithful people, as they retract and leave him, that's the story of each of our lives, more or less, more or less. And it varies from time to time in the periods of our lives.
But this is the story. The one example that comes to my mind all the time, and I never will forget it as a kid, they took me to see a torpedo well, a torpedo nose almost in the the class of a dodo bird now. But here was this magnificent piece of machinery that they could launch from one ship and that would unerringly hit the battleship several miles away. And they showed us pictures because as you saw the torpedo going in, it looked like it was going in absolutely a straight line. And yet when they explain to you how the torpedo keeps on course, it keeps on course because it doesn't go in a straight line.
It's constantly going from right to left, up and down, and wavering all the time like a corktor rope. What's keeping it well? There's a very sensitive mechanism inside of it which keeps it slightly old special kind of top we use to have. To me. That's the message of the Old Testament, the authority of God Almighty.
He speaks to his people. He speaks to his creation. He speaks to his universe. It's his. He doesn't explain things to us partially.
Are we like a bunch of kids when our fathers or mothers say, Look, it's time for you to go to bed, and the child of 1980, Aaron Park, says, Give me a good reason for going to bed at 09:00. Why reason? God speaks with authority. God is not a colossal. Jesus Christ spoke with authority.
He was not a colossal. He did not appeal to man's reason. He spoke with the authority of God. And he gave that to a church, thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church. He didn't say that to all the apostles.
He said it to Peter. One, up in Northern of Israel, lake, on a very solemn occasion. And even Mark Twain, in his book Innocence Abroad, which some think it's sarcastic, he emphasizes this particular incident in our lord's life. Even Mark Twain, who can be very scurrilous if you recall reading Innocence Abroad. This is a mighty important thing, and the Church of Jesus Christ is not a philosophizing, a rationalizing institution.
It tells us what to do with the authority of Christ and God. It's that simple. And yet there are those in our midst today. I say in our midst, not outside. Remember, the greatest enemies of the Church never came from outside.
We generated them from within. That's a very comfortable and nice thing to do, but that's the way it's been. Enemies from the outside strengthen the church. Enemies from within can devastate it, and that has happened. So did as you realize today, authority is not a four letter word, it's worse than a four letter word.
Worse than a four letter word. You can read a book on morals, just recently I read, where a questionnaire was taken of a number of 20 senior girls in an academy brought by a group of nuns. 20 of the seniors answered the questionnaire about premarital sex. Not one of the girls these are graduating seniors not one of them brought in the word sin or morality. All they talked about was maturity and responsibility.
And they are graduates of our great Catholic institutions. So, we may not like authority. We don't. It's against the democratic spirit. See, God, come to my help.
That's the way we open every office. Day is an argumentative, ma'am. In ten days, the imperative, come to me. Look upon me. I need you in ten day, have a thought.
We don't reason with God. Why should he reason with us? He tells us what to do. And the Old Testament is a recording of what happens when we don't. It's human nature in its totality.
The good, the bad, the heroic, and the cowardly. And we are there, not simultaneously, all the wrong. And so let's put these readings today together and see Jesus Christ. Old Testament is forecasting, he spoke with and so does his church.