In today's Gospel we see that Jesus teaches in the synagogue as one with astounding authority. All those who listen to Jesus recognized that he was different than any of the scribes. He presented his authority by showing them his tremendous power to silence and cast out a demon from a man. The amazed the crowd asked, "What is this? A new teaching-with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him." This week we remembered the anniversary of the infamous Roe v. Wade decision, and we still feel the echoes of that decision today don’t we? The current culture of death and the darkness in our world can become pretty discouraging. I read this week a startling statistic regarding the number of abortions since Roe v. Wade is 58,000,000. 58,000,000, that’s almost ten times Hitler’s holocaust. Add to that assisted suicide is now legal in a half dozen states, and the death penalty remains a blight on a half dozen others. And most people in our culture now feel that these states of affairs are simply a fact of life. The culture of death, as St. John Paul II called it so bluntly, seems to be on the march. Added to the culture of death in our society, is a huge problem with pornography. Statistics show 47% of Christian families said pornography is a problem in their home. I could give you a litany of other statistics about the viewing over the internet that would blow your mind. Suffice to say it is a huge problem in our society. The battle with darkness is real. The need to put on the armor of Christ urgent. The problem is we can easily get discouraged in our faith journey with these day to day burdens. And this can and does often times lead us into despair. But there is hope, and we hear today, that Jesus teaches unlike any other teacher who has ever come, before or after Jesus.