4th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Jan. 28, 2018
Mark 1: 21-28
Nativity, Washington, D.C.
“What
is this? A new teaching with authority”
(Mark 1: 27).
Christ exorcising the demon from the man in the synagog at Capernaum
(11th-century fresco)
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The demon who confronts Jesus in the synagog knows
who he is. It’s obvious that the devil
believes in God. Knowledge and faith do
not in themselves make us holy, or the demons would all be saints. Knowledge and faith do not in themselves have
the power to save us.
Mark 3:31-35
records an episode in which Jesus’ mother and family come to him while he’s
teaching. Mark had mentioned earlier
(3:21) that they think he’s lost his mind, and they’re coming to bring him
home. When he’s told they’re outside, he
asks who are his mother and brother and sister.
He answers, “Whoever does my Father’s will.” So even being a blood relative of Jesus is
not sufficient for salvation.
What does
have the power to save us? Recognizing
the authority of Jesus and the authority he represents; one must submit to the
will of God. Obviously, the demons
refuse to do that. They choose—it’s
their own decision—to reject God, to take damnation rather than submit their
own will, their own pride, their own preferences to anyone else.
If the
people in this Galilean synagog were so impressed by the teaching of Jesus, we
may ask, why didn’t all of them become his followers? We know, in fact, that many people who
followed him initially in Galilee left him after he introduced his teaching on
the Bread of Life, the giving of his own flesh and blood for us to eat for
eternal life. Many said, “This saying is
too hard” (John 6:60), and they left him.
St. Peter spoke for the 12, however, responding to Jesus, “You have the
words of eternal life. We have come to
believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God” (6:68-69). Accepting the teaching authority of Jesus,
Peter and other disciples stayed with him.
But those
who found his teachings too demanding didn’t stay. Even if they admired some of his teachings,
they weren’t willing to accept everything.
If it wasn’t the Eucharist they found too challenging, it was the call to
be converted, to change their moral behavior, to change their internal
attitudes, to put our heavenly Father first in their lives, ahead of their own
comfort, convenience, addiction to pleasure or power or wealth. As G.K. Chesterton once said, “The Christian
ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.”
(What’s Wrong with the World, pt. 1,
ch. 5)
The Gospel
puts to us the question of Jesus’ authority.
Do we recognize it? Do we accept
it?
Perhaps we
wonder where to look for his authority.
Obviously, he isn’t going to walk into Nativity Church as he stood and
taught in the synagog at Capernaum. But
we have his authoritative teaching before us every time we listen to the
Scriptures being read, or open them up at home—which we ought to do daily. By the Scriptures, I mean not only the
Gospels, which are our starting place as followers of Jesus, but the entire New
Testament as well, and the Old Testament too.
We also find Christ’s authoritative teaching in what his Church teaches
us, in the sacred liturgy, in the catechism, in the words of the Holy Father,
in the words of our bishops, e.g., what they tell us about racism or capital
punishment or the dignity of immigrants or sexual morality. These teachings, too, we must take in,
respect, absorb, and submit to even when they may be challenging or difficult.
For
assuredly we don’t want to be like the demon whom Jesus cast out in the
synagog, knowing who Jesus is but too proud to allow him into our lives, too
stubborn to let him save us.
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