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Homilies are posted no later than during the week
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4 Ordinary Time
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Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle B - Mark 1:21-28
A man was crippled. Christians visited her. They
chatted with her. Then it was time to go. They said, "We will pray for
you." The woman replied, "I can do my own praying. But if you want to
help me, you can wash the dishes and take out the dog." Mark's Gospel describes not only
the opening of the teaching ministry of the Nazarene but also His first
recorded miracle. This is a a Gospel double-header. Mark gives two
Jesus tales for the price of one.
Incidentally, Newsweek reveals that more than 80% of
people are convinced God performs miracles and about half are convinced
they have seen divine intervention in their lives.
The clever plan of the Master was to get as many
invitations as possible to speak in Galilean synagogues. He wanted to
get His message out on the wires a.s.a.p. He was a master of marketing.
Mark's Gospel tells us He preached in synagogues seventeen different
times. We are talking about Operation Saturation. The first thirty
years of His life Jesus worked with His rough carpenter hands. Now He
was about to work with His golden tongue.
Mark does not tell us what Jesus taught. We cannot
fault him. The blame is Peter's. He was an eyewitness or, better,
an earwitness. It was he who dictated his memoirs to Mark, who may have
been his son. Remember Peter was married. And possibly Peter could
neither read nor write.
Peter does tell us, however, through Mark that Jesus
upset people's minds with His teaching. Whatever the message was, it
staggered His audience. It was not the usual canned material that they
were so often subjected to. His words must have danced across the
airwaves like blazing fragmentation grenades.
One hint of an explanation is found in Mark's words:
"He taught with personal authority and not as the Scribes taught." The
scholars of the day would preface their remarks with such lines as "The
rabbi says..." or "It is alleged..." or "It is commonly taught..."
That was not the Nazarene's style. He did not tell
His audience what others were teaching. Rather, He tackled questions
with authority. One did not hear Him say, "It may be..." but rather
"Amen, amen I say to you..." He required no credentials beyond Himself.
If one does not subscribe to a divine Jesus, one
must put Him down as a most arrogant person. Note that His audience did
not put Him down as such. They felt chills run up their spines as He
spoke. They sensed they were in God's presence.
At this point, Mark changes directions. The Christ
is half way into His talk and a sick fellow rudely interrupts. He has
no time for Jesus' teachings. He wants his health returned.
Check out the Teacher's reaction. He does not lay
the man out for bad manners. He does not say, "See me after my
lecture." Nor does He say, "Tell your symptoms to my disciples." He
stops His talk in mid-sentence, perhaps mid-syllable, and cures the
sick fellow. What message is Mark telegraphing to us?
Firstly, the Master is backing up His message with
divine power. He is, as college students say, a Hot Ten. Secondly He
reveals He is as much interested in people's bodies as their souls. He
is concerned with the whole person. Check the Gospels. You'll never
find Jesus refusing a sick person a cure.
The Lord Jesus is endorsing the dictum that reads,
"Before you can put grace into people's souls, you must first put food
into their stomachs." Incidentally, there are thirty million hungry
people in the US alone. Many million are children.
Many Christians forget this point. Theirs is a
telephone booth Theology or, better, Meology. There is room in that
tight kiosk for only God and themselves. Other people, especially
hungry or sick ones, are on their own. No wonder George Bernard Shaw
said, "Beware the person whose God is only in the skies."
If your Christ is only in the skies, think again.
"If you haven't any charity in your heart," quipped Bob Hope, "you
have the worst kind of heart trouble." Jesus was not afraid of
getting involved in the nitty gritty of people's lives. He worked with
His hands more often than He spoke with His mouth.
Mark is saying to us, "If you want to measure what
kind of a Christian you are, count up what you did for the crippled man
today. You are either a Bible or a libel." Each of us should be God's
letter of introduction to a despairing world.
Charles Dickens wrote, "No one is useless in the
world who lightens the burden of it for someone else."
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4 Ordinary Time
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He Spoke with Authority
In
today's Gospel reading the Sacred Writer, the Holy Spirit, speaks about
the authority of the Lord. The reading is taken from the first
chapter of the earliest of the Gospels, the Gospel of Mark. Jesus
begins to teach in Capernaum. The people are held spellbound
because he spoke with authority, not like the scribes. A man
comes before Jesus who is in the hand of the power of evil. Jesus
makes the devil come out of the man. The bystanders are amazed
because Jesus has such authority.
What
do we mean when we speak about the authority of the Lord? What do
we mean when we talk about authority in general? What ways do we
exercise authority? What ways do we exercise the authority of the
Lord?
The
word authority comes from the Latin word auctoritas. The basic
meaning of this Latin word is creator. The word author also comes
from this word. A writer can look at his or her work, an essay, a short
story, a novel, a poem, a non-fiction study, whatever, an author can
look at this work and say, “This is my creation.” The government
recognizes that the author has rights over his or her creation.
Take the homilies that I write. No one can take them and put them
into a book, use them on their website, etc. unless I say it is
OK. I have authority.
When we talk about the authority of the Lord, we recognize that He is
the Creator, or Author of the Universe. He has the power to
govern the universe. Just as an author can determine what takes
place in the short story he or she writes, God can determine what takes
place in the universe He has created.
When
we talk about authority in general, we speak about the power a person
has received to determine the actions of another person or a group of
people. Society creates laws to protect its citizen and then
gives authority to the police to enforce these laws. For example we
give the police the authority to stop our cars if we are driving at 54
mph on a street where the speed limit is posted as 40 mph.
However, as the source of authority, we can change the laws. If
we change the speed limit on the same road to 55 mph, the
policeman no longer has the right to stop us if we are going 54 mph. In
general, authority is intimately connected with its source. We,
the most powerful nation in the world, have made Barak Obama our
president. He is now the most powerful person in the physical
world. George W. Bush had been the most powerful person in the
world but we, through our election laws, removed his authority
from him on January 20th.
All
authority is by nature transitional, that is, all authority
except that authority which comes from the Lord. In the Gospel of Mark,
the people were amazed because they had never experienced someone
speaking with such authority. Jesus held people spellbound
because God gave Him the authority to teach the truth. This
authority would never be removed from Jesus because Jesus was
intimately united to his Father, the source of the authority.
We
share in the authority of the Lord to the extent that we are united to
the source of this authority. When we are confirmed we receive the
power, the authority, to defeat evil in the world and to lead others to
Jesus, the source of all truth. This authority is given to us by
God. God can remove this authority and will remove this authority
if we refuse to stay intimately united to him. I hope our young people
who recently were confirmed, our parents who need to direct their
children, and all of us, myself included, understand the gravity of all
this. God has entrusted us with his authority only to the extent
that we allow him into our lives. That is the reason why the
Church is adamant that we attend Church regularly and receive the
sacraments regularly. We need to have union with God so we can
bring his authority, his power to the world.
The
crowd was spellbound because Jesus spoke with authority, not like the
scribes and pharisees. People are no different now than they were
then. People want to hear the real Word of God, and feel the
presence of God in the words of the speaker. We can do this. We
have the authority to do this. People can witness the Word of God
present in our lives, and then choose to make the Word of God present
in their own lives. We can do this. We can make Jesus'
presence real for others. We have the authority to do
this. People want to learn how to live their lives in such
a way that when they conclude their lives they can stand before the
Lord saying that they have made His Presence known in the world.
We can do this. We have the authority, the power, to form others
into Christian leaders. We have the authority, the power of Jesus
Christ if only we stay united to him.
Today we pray that we may remain united to the Lord, the source of the
power and the authority we have received.
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http://www.geocities.com/seapadre_1999/
* available in Spanish - see
Spanish homilies
4 Ordinary Time
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Free
of Anxiety
(February 1, 2009)
Bottom line: We ask Jesus to protect us from anxiety - especially the
fear that so easily turns into anguish.
Some medical experts estimate that perhaps half of all symptoms have
their origin in fear. The patient fears losing a job, being exposed,
death of a loved one, betrayal or old age - and the dread manifests
itself in a medical symptom such as severe bodily pain. The doctor
examines the patient and discover no physical cause, yet the pain or
paralysis is real. The fear that causes such symptoms is called
"anxiety" - an unfocused, free-floating fear that won't go away.
St. Paul says he would like us to be "free of anxiety." He is giving
advice for single people regarding marriage, but his wish applies more
generally. St. Paul would readily join the prayer we say at the
conclusion of the Our Father: "Protect us from all anxiety."
Recently Pope Benedict addressed the common problem of fear and
anxiety.*
He began by acknowledging fear as a natural dimension of
life. He then distinguished between imaginary, childhood fears that
later disappear and the ones rooted in reality. Those we must face with
human commitment and trust in God. There is, however, said the Holy
Father, "a deeper form of fear, of an existential form, which at times
borders on anguish: this fear is born from a sense of emptiness,
connected with a culture permeated by diffused nihilism, both theoretic
and practical." To defeat this fear, bordering on anguish, requires the
power of Christ - his intervention in our lives.
In today's Gospel we hear about Jesus encountering a man with an
unclean spirit. It feared that Jesus would, quote, "destroy us."
Evidently the unclean spirit had taken over aspects of the man's
personality. The man appeared to be talking incoherently because Jesus
order him to be quiet - and the unclean spirit left him. What first
looked like destruction turned out to be liberation.
The Catholic Church continues Jesus' ministry of exorcism - casting out
unclean spirits. In recent years many priests and deacons have taken
formal training to properly administer the new rite of exorcism. I have
not taken that training, but I recognize that authority as part of the
priestly ministry. Before baptizing a child or an adult, a priest
performs a very simple exorcism - not that the person is possessed, but
that he will have to face demonic temptations and attacks. For that
reason, the priest says a exorcism declaring the superiority of
Christ's power. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation or some other
pastoral encounter, I will sometimes sense that a spiritual force has a
hold on the person. As part of the absolution or some other prayer, I
will quietly tell the evil spirit to leave.
In Christian tradition, prayers of exorcism are generally performed
softly - unlike what the movies depict. Once a parish priest brought a
young girl named Agnese Salamoni to Padre Pio - St. Pio of Pietrelcina.
People has put Agnese on a pedestal. She was the "model girl of the
parish." But suddenly Agnese fell into a state of depression, leaving
her paralyzed. Although Padre Pio was not a formal exorcist, he sensed
the presence of a demonic power. He simply said, "Begone." The girl
improved, but her cure was not instantaneous. It required much
subsequent prayer.
Now, I am sure few of you look at yourself as an exorcist. Still, God
could use any of us to speak a word that brings liberation. An example:
You may have heard of Dr. Alveda King - Martin Luther King Jr.'s niece.
In the 70's she had received two abortions. Since the Roe v. Wade
Supreme Court ruling had legalized abortion, she believed Planned
Parenthood counselors who told her, "It’s not a baby, it’s just a blob
of tissue." Pregnant a third time, she mentioned to her grandfather -
Dr. Martin Luther King, Sr. - what Planned Parenthood had told her.
"No," he said, "they are lying. It is a child." Dr. Alveda King
embraced her child and she went on to seek forgiveness and healing for
her earlier abortions. Today she has a deep peace - a freedom from
anxiety - that makes her a powerful leader in the Pro-Life movement.**
If we begin each day with a prayer, Jesus can use us to bring
liberation, healing and peace to others. We need first ask - like Dr.
Martin Luther King Sr. - that we will have peace, freedom from fear,
within our own hearts. In Mass today, we ask Jesus to protect us from
anxiety - especially the fear that so easily turns into anguish. It can
cause incoherent behavior. It can paralyze. Only Jesus can free us from
such demonic powers. To defeat that fear, which borders on anguish,
requires the power of Christ - his intervention in our lives.
**********
*
June 22, 2008, Address before recitation of Angelus.
**See Dr. Alveda King's interview with Terence Jeffrey.
General Intercessions for Fourth Ordinary Sunday (from Priests for
Life)
Spanish Version
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http://www.agreeley.com/homilies.html
4 Ordinary Time
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http://www.saintvincentarchabbey.org/homilies/index.lasso
4 Ordinary Time
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Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Gospel Summary
Jesus goes to the synagogue in Capernaum with four of his disciples
where people are astonished that he teaches with such authority. A man
in the synagogue, possessed by an evil spirit, recognizes Jesus as the
"Holy One of God" who has come to destroy the spirits of evil. After
Jesus casts out the evil spirit, the people in the synagogue are amazed
at the power and authority that Jesus possesses, and go out to spread
his fame throughout Galilee.
Life Implications
More of the implications of this passage may reveal themselves if we
remember the narrative context into which Mark places it. After this
cure of the demoniac, Jesus cures Simon's mother-in-law and many others
afflicted either by illness or by evil spirits.
It is with these acts of power done out of compassion for the needs of
others that Jesus begins his public life. Immediately before, Mark has
told us of the baptism of Jesus, with the Spirit descending upon him
and the voice from heaven saying to him, "You are my beloved Son."
Jesus is then tempted by Satan not to trust that affirmation. After the
arrest of John the Baptist, Jesus goes to Galilee where he proclaims
that the kingdom of God is at hand. He calls disciples to follow him,
and together they go to the synagogue at Capernaum (today's gospel
passage).
The cure of the demoniac represents the beginning of the messianic age
when the power of Satan's kingdom will at last be destroyed ("Have you
come to destroy us?"). Jesus enters a world in which Satan reigns,
teaches with the authority of God, and with compassion casts out evil
spirits that hold people in bondage and fear. Christ's mission, begun
here, will not be completed until the end, "when he hands over the
kingdom to his God and Father, when he has destroyed every sovereignty
and every authority and power . . . The last enemy to be destroyed is
death" (1 Cor 15: 24-26).
Jesus called disciples to be with him as he began his mission at
Capernaum; now he calls us to be with him as he continues his mission
in the towns and cities where we live. The Spirit descends upon each of
us at baptism, and a voice from heaven says to each of us, "You are my
beloved." We, like Christ, will often be tempted by Satan not to
believe these words when the power of evil seems to be invincible. We
will also be tempted to use power and authority, not with Christ's
compassion in service of others, but to advance our own reign.
Later in his gospel, Mark talks about authentic Christian discipleship.
Two disciples who were with Jesus at Capernaum (Jesus and John) seem to
have assumed that discipleship means enjoying positions of power. Jesus
summoned all his disciples and explained his notion of power. He said
that among the Gentiles, rulers make their authority felt and lord it
over people. But, he added, among his disciples, whoever wishes to be
great must be the servant of all. This was the notion of power that led
Jesus to teach, to cast out demons, to cure illnesses, and finally to
give himself up to death on a cross with the supreme power of love.
"For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give
his life as a ransom for many" (Mk 10:45).
Campion P. Gavaler, O.S.B.
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http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/lowhome.html Meeting Christ in the Liturgy
4 Ordinary Time
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FOURTH Sunday
Deuteronomy 18, 15-20; Psalm 95; 1 Corinthians 7:32-35; Mark 1:21-28
Jesus the Lord is Christ, for he is anointed, as with oil, by God the
Father with the Holy Spirit. Jesus is Christ and Lord because he is God
and Man and in him Man is perfectly reconciled to God,; God's salvation
is made completely available to all men. This work continues each day
in the sacramental liturgy of the Church, the perfect offering of
Christ mad visible and present in the midst of His Body, the Church.
Jesus' messianic consecration reveals his divine mission, "for the name
'Christ' implies 'he who anointed,' 'he who was anointed' and 'the very
anointing with which he was anointed.' The one who anointed is the
Father, the one who was anointed is the Son, and he was anointed with
the Spirit who is the anointing."(St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres., 3, 18,
3:PG 7 / 1, 934.) His eternal messianic consecration was revealed
during the time of his earthly life at the moment of his baptism by
John, when "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and
with power," "that he might be revealed to Israel" (Acts 10:38; Jn
1:31) as its Messiah. His works and words will manifest him as "the
Holy One of God." (Mark 1:24; John 6:69; Acts 3:14) (CCC 438)
I look forward to meeting you here again next week as, together, we
"meet Christ in the liturgy", Father Cusick (Publish with permission.)
http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/
For further reading on today' Gospel, see also these paragraphs in the
CCC: 1673, 2173)
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http://www.ctk-thornbury.org.uk/
4 Ordinary Time
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Fourth
Sunday of Year B
“His teaching made a deep impression on them because he taught them
with authority.” So we read in today’s Gospel.
We are not very happy with authority today. We aren’t keen on trusting
someone’s judgement just because of the role they have. Whether it be
the police, the medical profession, law makers, teachers or clergy –all
have to justify themselves.
People don’t accept anything today just because they are told it. They
want to know why. I suppose this is because those in authority have
abused their power. They have taken short-cuts and caused hurt and harm
The police have been caught out rigging evidence, doctors have been
found to have made wrong diagnoses, law makers have shown themselves to
be corrupt, teachers have just lectured us without ensuring we really
understood, and priests have looked after themselves and failed to go
after the lost sheep.
It is understandable that we resent those who have exercised their
authority badly. We feel let down, we feel that our trust has been
abused; we feel we can’t rely on anything any more. Those who fail to
carry out their responsibilities let us all down; they give everyone a
bad name.
But what about Jesus and the way he exercised authority? Here is the
Son of God; the Lord of Creation, the one with all the power that ever
could be vested in one individual, so it is important that we look to
see how he exercises it? And the short answer is that he exercises
authority with gentleness.
He who could rule all, doesn’t. He who could destroy even the evil
spirits doesn’t, he simply rebukes them. He who could call armies of
angels to defend him doesn’t, instead he allows himself to be taken
into custody, tried, tortured and executed.
It is what Jesus doesn’t do that is more astonishing than what he does
do. You will notice from the Gospel, it wasn’t the casting out of the
evil spirits that astonished the people it was his teaching. Not his
actions but his words.
It is no wonder that the people were astonished. Jesus truly is the
prophet foretold by Moses who speaks the words God has put into his
mouth. And these words are words of love, words of truth, words of
peace, words of gentleness.
And in his words he reveals the mysteries of the Kingdom to us, mere
children. And does not our heart burn within us as he talks to us on
the road through life. We hear his words and we are astonished and
filled with joy.
Jesus was no prophet in the ordinary sense of the word. Although on
occasion he used harsh language to certain groups with vested
interests, he did not lambaste the ordinary people in the way that some
of the prophets felt they had to.
The prophets of old were faced with a stubborn people who could not see
God’s will, and, for the most part, they were fiery preachers who used
strong language and threats to put across their message.
Jesus doesn’t do this. He is far better than a prophet. He doesn’t
threaten, he doesn’t shout and bawl, he doesn’t really ever get angry
with the people. His message is Blessed are the poor; Love your
neighbour; Do go to those who persecute you; Pray for the coming of the
Kingdom. And his message is all the more powerful for the fact that he
has all the authority that has ever existed or will ever exist—but
doesn’t use it.
We don’t call him a prophet, or even the prophet. We call him Emmanuel
–God with us, Jesus –one who saves.
Here is real authority; here is the authority of God himself. Here is
an authority figure who respects us more than we respect ourselves.
Here is an authority figure who goes so far as to give his life for our
sake.
While we distrust the authority figures of our world today, we must, of
course, acknowledge that each of us somewhere or other also exercises
authority; whether it be as a parent, an elder brother or sister, or in
some aspect of our work. And in our exercise of authority we are guilty
of the very things we accuse our oppressors. We too are open to
question and to accusation.
So let us take Jesus for our example and guide in the way we exercise
our responsibilities. Let us teach our children as he would. Let us
treat our younger brothers and sisters as he would. Let us treat our
subordinates at work as he would. Let us treat all those we have power
over, however insignificant that might be, just as he would.
We will then find that people accord us an authority not based on any
power we hold but based on the credibility and consistency of our lives.
The effect of doing this is that society itself will change and become
better. We Christians will have become an active leaven in the world.
Our patience, tolerance and gentleness will have become infectious and
will have spread from the top to the bottom of our society. We will
wake up one day and discover that we have built up the Kingdom of God
here on earth.
Through the efforts of the Dalai Lama we have heard what the Chinese
Communist Government has done in Tibet since it invaded in 1949. We
have heard how even now they have systematically attempted to eradicate
every vestige of Tibetan religion and culture.
There was a certain army commander who was particularly brutal towards
the Buddhist monks and nuns of Tibet. He revelled in the reputation he
had gained as a persecutor and destroyer of monasteries. His reputation
had grown to such an extent that he only had to approach a monastery
with his soldiers and the monks fled.
One day he arrived at the gates of a well-known monastery and when the
gates were battered down he was again pleased to hear that the monks
had fled. He very quickly flew into a rage, however, when one of his
officers reported that in the inner courtyard there remained one
solitary monk. He strode off into the cloister and went right up to the
monk who was standing there peacefully before him.
‘Don’t you know who I am?’ he yelled into the monk’s face. ‘Without
blinking an eye, I can run you right through with my sword.’ The monk
quietly responded: ‘Don’t you know who I am? Without blinking an eye, I
can let you run me through with that sword.’
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Father Bonar will not be posting homilies for Cycle B to allow himself
time for other projects. His collection of homilies (including homilies
for Cycle B) is available at www.clydebonar.com.
4 Ordinary Time |
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These
homilies may be copied and adapted for your own use;
however, they may not be commercially published without permission of
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