(Homily 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Yr. B)
The Word of God today revolves around the
prophet and the authority imbedded in every authentic prophetic word. When
there is a concordance between a messenger and his message, one cannot but
accept the credibility and the authority in his word and message. In the case of
Jesus, his name corresponds with his message, and His message corresponds with
His actions. The name Jesus in Hebrew is Joshua which means “God saves”.
Therefore, imbedded in his name are his identity and mission. His words are
power-packed for his authority comes from above. He is the Prophet per
excellence!
The first reading
from the book of Deuteronomy (Deut.
18:15-20) announces a prophet to be sent after Moses. First
of all, who is a prophet? (One who speaks on behalf of the other, somebody’s
spokesman) So, a prophet of God is one who speaks on behalf of God or in the
name of God. In doing this, he might refer to past or future events. But he is
not merely a futurologist (someone who merely predicts the future).
Furthermore, it is not enough to speak in the name of God, such an individual
must be called by God and backed by His authority too. This brings us to the
theme of AUTHORITY. A prophet does not preach or speak out of his own accord, rather he is
under the coverage of God’s authority. In this passage, Moses assured the
people of God’s provision of a prophet like him who will speak the word of which
he would be given. He therefore instructed the people to listen to him as the
words he would be speaking belongs to God. Besides, a prophet is expected to speak only in the name of God and not in his
or in the name of other gods. When God says he will raise a prophet for his
people, it reveals God’s desire to implant his words in our hearts.
We
may well presume that the prophet referred to in the first reading is Joshua,
since he took over from Moses and God also assured him that as He was with
Moses his servant, He shall also be with him (Joshua 1:5). This may not be a very wrong guess even though it may
not be exact. However, drawing the issue further, we may deem it plausible to
say that the prophet in question goes
beyond Joshua. In fact, prefiguratively, it accurately points to our Lord
Jesus Christ who came as the greatest of all the prophets and spoke in the name
of God with authority, as revealed in the Gospel reading. And there we go!
The Gospel passage (Mark 1:21b-28) presents the episode of the authoritative teaching
of Jesus. Jesus as particular to Mark enters the synagogue to teach, and Mark
underscores the power of Jesus’ teaching “like someone with authority”. Just as
each one of us goes to Church or a place of worship to pray and to have an
encounter, similarly, Jesus went to the Synagogue and there he taught them. He
taught them with authority, and with the same authority he commanded the evil
spirit to be mute. The authority
manifested in his teaching gained him the admiration, fame and the amazement of
those around. Indeed, he did capture the attention of his listeners. This passage follows the Gospel reading of last Sunday, therein after
the call of the first disciples, Mark narrates that Jesus embarked on his
public ministry in Galilee. In this narrative, the first episode St. Mark
presents is an exorcism (Mk. 1:23-26). Mark emphasized on Jesus’ teaching,
but without indicating the content of that teaching. He says that he taught as
one having authority. The Greek word for authority is ‘exousia’, which also has
the connotation of power, especially in the context of miracle. Indeed, Mark testifies that Jesus displayed both
authority and power in his miracles. The
exorcism must have followed as a demonstration of the power of Jesus’ teaching
with authority. His Word is deed, action-packed!
Another important point we
must acknowledge today is drawn from the healing of the man with unclean spirit
as we read from the Gospel passage. We are told that the unclean spirits
recognized our Lord Jesus Christ and not only called him Jesus of Nazareth but
also the Holy One of God. On our part, as those who hear the prophetic utterances
do we recognize the Lord in his word and messages? Jesus teaches and preaches
without fear of anything or anybody, not even of evil spirits who know and
recognize Him. The evil spirits are afraid of Him, little wonder, the man with
unclean spirit cried out: “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have
you come to destroy us? I know who you are- the Holy one of God!” And
immediately Jesus rebuked and commanded him, “Quiet! Come out of him!” To the amazing question of the man with
unclean spirit: Have you come to destroy us? Yes! Jesus has come to destroy all
that tends to destroy man! We remember the episode where the disciples were
sailing in the stormy lake of Galilee, Jesus gave the same command: “Be silent”
and immediately the sea was calm (cf.
Mk. 4:35-41). The question of the
man with unclean spirit reveals once again the words of St. John thus: “This
was the purpose of the appearing of the Son of God, to undo the work of the
devil” (1Jn. 3:8). One could imagine what the man with unclean
spirit was doing in the Synagogue, this is a reminder to all of us, that
wherever children of God gather, Satan and his agents come around too, but the
Good News is that the presence and words of Jesus are terror to them.
St.
Mark communicates to us that the God revealed by Jesus is a God who brings life,
liberation and healing and not death. The episode between Jesus and the man
with unclean spirit expresses this fact eloquently. It is interesting the
reaction of the man with unclean spirit towards Jesus: “I know who you are”. The
crowd described him as one teaching with authority, which is seen in his
authority over evil. Yet, the crowd was not able to identify the source of this
authority, if not the possessed man who shouted “I know who you are-the holy
one of God”. However, his listeners
noticed that there was something different from the way, the tone and the style
of Jesus’ teaching, compared to that of the Scribes. Jesus speaks and talks from the heart, and as such his words reach the
heart of his listeners. His is a heart-to-heart communication. For this,
his listeners were able to notice that there is something extraordinary in his
teaching.
In the Gospel of Mark there are twofold questions that permeate the whole corpus and continue to linger, and they are:
“who is this man? (Mk. 4:41); what is this? (Mk. 1:27)” The first question
arises because of his person and his deeds, while the second as we saw in this
Gospel passage is just about his deeds and prodigies. However, these two amazing questions point to the Marcan Messianic
secret. These questions continue until the moment of his death, when the
roman soldier who witnessed the passion and saw how Jesus died declared: “truly
this man was a son of God” (Mk. 15:39).
Likewise, we need to recognize who Jesus is. He is not an ordinary person, but
the Holy One of God, the Son of God. In the Gospel of Mark we are told that
“whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him and shout,
“You are the Son of God”” (Mk. 3:11).
Funny enough, the messianic secret of
Mark was revealed on a number of times by the evil spirits. Even the evil
spirits know and recognize Jesus as the Son of God. Then, what should be the
difference between our knowledge of Him and that of the evil spirits? In Greek
there are two major words that indicate knowledge: ‘gnosis’ and ‘epignosis’,
while gnosis alludes to ordinary, head and idealistic knowledge, epignosis
has to do with real, practical and existential knowledge. Thus, unless our knowledge of him is existential
and transformational, we risk remaining at the same knowledge level with the
unclean spirits. Indeed, it is the
real and self-involved knowledge of Him that will gain us eternal life. For
this St. John evinces “And eternal life is this: to know you, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (Jn.
17:3). This knowledge has to change
our life, else we risk being like the unclean spirits that know Jesus by words
of mouth, and not by deeds.
In the second reading (1 Cor.7:32-35) when
some of the Corinthians were worried and anxious about life, St. Paul
encouraged them saying: “We must be free from anxiety”. And it is only when we are immersed in the
God-experience that we can be relieved from anxieties and worries, whether
married or not. St. Paul exhorts us to be conscious of the call from God, so that we can have undivided devotion for
the Lord. He praises purity for the sake of God’s kingdom. He emphasizes that
married people are taken up by their worries of this world. By that, Paul does
not intend to condemn marriage. However, he stresses that celibacy places
someone in a better position to serve God.
Above all else, however, the fascinating and soul southing good news
of this day, is that when the word of God inhabits in our heart, when God takes
the driver-seat in our life, we too can teach and speak with authority, as
an offshoot from an authentic experience with and in Jesus Christ. Beloved there are some areas of our life that we need to dispose for
the Lord to destroy, just as the man with unclean spirit cried out “have you
come to destroy us?” It is only when he destroys those aspects of us inhibited
by evil and vices that we can be free and saved. And as it is suggestive of our
responsorial psalm, we cannot but conclude with the words of the Psalmist thus:
“O that today you would listen to his voice! Harden not your hearts” (Ps. 95:7-8).
(Fr. Vitus Chigozie, SC)
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