TUESDAY
The Lord taught in the synagogue at Capernaum, and all marveled at His teaching, “for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes” (Mark 1:22).
This authority did not consist in a commanding tone, but in the power to act upon souls and hearts. His word penetrated within and bound the consciences of men, showing them that everything was indeed as He declared.
Such is always the word imbued with divine power—the word that proceeds from the Spirit, the anointed word. Such was the word of the holy Apostles and, after them, of all influential teachers who spoke not from mere learning, but through the communication of the Spirit.
This is a gift of God, acquired not so much through laborious investigation of the truth as through living in the truth with one’s heart and one’s whole life. Then the word becomes filled with persuasive power, because it passes from heart to heart. Herein lies the authority of the word over souls.
The scribes who speak and write about what they have learned are not given such power, because they speak from the head and pour their intellectual constructions into the heads of others. But life is not in the head; the head is only its summit. Life is in the heart. Only that which proceeds from the heart can influence the course of life.
+St. Theophan the Recluse - Thoughts for Every Day of the Year