Jesus came to Capernaum with his followers, and on the sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught. The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit; he 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!” Jesus rebuked him and said, “Quiet! Come out of him!” The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him. All were amazed and asked one another, “What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.” His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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When I think of a sacred space, I think of this church. The life-sized crucifix suspended over the altar. This pulpit. The Saints and the Stations of the Cross that line the wall of our church.
Sacred spaces are filled with holy things that point us to God.
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In today’s Gospel, there’s a man with an unclean spirit present in the synagogue. The synagogue is a holy place, so why is he there?
Surely, this man doesn’t belong.
Or does he?
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I imagine him to be a conflicted man, both a sinner and a believer – a man who knew he was under the power of something stronger than himself.
Perhaps he showed up in the synagogue that day hoping to be set free.
As soon as the Lord lays eyes on him, Jesus says to the evil spirit holding him captive, “Quiet! Come out of him!”
Suddenly, the struggle is over. This man is set free.
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This is the first miracle that Jesus performs in Mark’s Gospel, amplifying the meaning of it. Perhaps Mark uses this man as an image for all of us.
Every person struggles with something – a particular sin, a lingering weakness, a wound in need of healing.
The best place to find what we’re looking for isin the house of God, or in the grace-filled silence of prayer.
As the Lord later says, “I have come that they may have life in abundance.” Not only the man in the temple, but all who believe in Him who has come to set us free.
After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the Gospel of God: “This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”
As he passed by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea; they were fishermen. Jesus said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Then they left their nets and followed him. He walked along a little farther and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They too were in a boat mending their nets. Then he called them. So they left their father Zebedee in the boat along with the hired men and followed him.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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One summer while studying for the priesthood, I spent a month volunteering at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal. Little did I realize I’d be taking my future parish on multiple pilgrimages there!
I remember one morning watching an elderly blind priest shuffle in to celebrate Mass. He was holding onto the arm of a young man, who guided him slowly to the altar.
As the priest bent over to kiss the altar, I wondered, “Now, how is he going to celebrate Mass? He can’t see!”
After being guided to his chair, he was handed a set of headphones and a tape player. “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” the priest said.
Then it hit me…this young man who escorted the priest in for Mass must’ve recorded all of the prayers ahead of time, so that the priest could listen to his voice, then repeat what he heard.
It was a marvelous bond on multiple levels, reminding me of two things we find growing in today’s Gospel: friendship and the transmission of faith.
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Today Jesus calls four of his first disciples: Peter, Andrew, James, and John.
Three of them – Peter, James, and John – will later form Christ’s inner circle. They’ll be the ones chosen to witness him in his transfigured glory on Mount Tabor. They’ll also be the ones asked to accompany him in his agony, as he sweats blood privately in Gethsemane.
Meanwhile, Andrew will introduce more people to Jesus than any other disciple in the Gospels.
Together, these four men become the first friends and disciples of Jesus in his public ministry.
They remind me of that young man who escorted the blind priest into Mass in Fatima. In both cases, faith and friendship were being formed and handed on. They were intertwined, as true faith yields lasting friendship.
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Do I have that kind of friend, whose either inspired my faith, or one whom I can hand my faith onto?
As we start yet another year, perhaps this might become a New Year’s Resolution – not only to grow in faith, but also to share it with a friend.
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Image credits: (1) Steubenville, X (2) My Catholic Life! (3) NPR
The people were filled with expectation, and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Christ. John answered them all, saying, “I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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“You are dust and unto dust you shall return.”
Those words are spoken to us as a black cross of ash is traced on our foreheads every Ash Wednesday.
There’s nothing miraculous about those ashes. But that black smudge is a simple, yet profound, reminder of our need to amend our lives.
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The same is true of the baptism offered by John in the Jordan River. He was not bestowing the Holy Spirit, but his baptism was an opportunity for people to repent, rededicating their lives to God.
What’s important is the fact that a line is forming in the desert. People are seeking what John is offering. His emergence as a prophet-preacher starts a movement towards God, signaling to Jesus that his time has come.
Jesus needs to publicly identify with this change in religious tide, revealing himself as the long-awaited shepherd, who will seek and save the lost.
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Imagine people braving the desert heat, acknowledging by their mere presence that something has gone awry in their lives.
Jesus stands there in solidarity with them as an anonymous soul shuffling his feet in the sand, waiting his turn.
Far off in the distance, the fiery voice of John the Baptist can be heard, “You brood of vipers! Who told you of the wrath to come?”
The Lord must’ve smiled, admiring John’s zeal.
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According to Luke’s Gospel, John does not realize that he’s baptized Jesus until the Lord comes out of the muddy water and prays. Suddenly, the Spirit descends and remains upon him – a sign of Christ’s divinity. Then the voice of his heavenly Father proclaims:
“You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
What has Jesus done that was so pleasing? He hasn’t preached a single sermon or performed a single miracle yet. He wasn’t even in need of John’s baptism, as he never sinned! So, again, what was so pleasing?
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In taking that plunge, Jesus inaugurates his public ministry. Here he follows the example of his mother, Mary, who thirty years prior said to the angel Gabriel, “Let it be done unto me according to your word.”
The moment she surrendered to God, Mary let go of everything she called her own – her will, her body, her future, her marriage, her very life – placing it all in the providential hands of God.
Now Jesus does the same. At his baptism, he lets go of everything he’s called his own for the last thirty years – his privacy, his body, his life at home with Mary, his role as a humble carpenter from the small town of Nazareth.
Symbolically, the Jordan River becomes a watery tomb, swallowing the Lord’s private life. Suddenly, he emerges publicly as the Messiah, with whom his heavenly Father is well pleased.
As he turns away from Nazareth and faces Jerusalem, the Lord prepares himself for his destiny: to preach and to heal, to be loved and rejected, nailed to a cross and placed in a tomb.
But there, folded up inside his burial cloth, Jesus will leave one final thing behind: death itself.
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So, what does this mean for us?
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Unlike Jesus, most of us were baptized at thirty daysor thirty weeks old, not thirty years old. We had no idea of the gift – or responsibility – we were receiving as holy water came trickling down our heads.
Thus, a crucial step in the Christian life involves rediscovering the meaning of our baptism. What happened to us? How are we to respond? What difference did those stirred waters make?
Our baptism not only calls, but also enables us, to follow the path of surrender, plunging our will, our desires, our future, even our bodies into the watery tomb of the Jordan with Jesus, as we emerge a new creation:
God’s beloved sons and daughters, and thus, his instruments in the world.
As Saint Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ and the life I live is no longer my own. I still live my earthly life, but it is a life of faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself for me.”
Where am I on my Christian journey, which began at baptism? Have I emerged fully out of that font a new creation? Or does part of me still need to be plunged, purified by Christ?
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“You are dust and unto dust you shall return.”
In the end, all that turns to dust is what we leave behind – sin and death.
What remains is what came out of the Jordan:
New life in Christ.
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Image credits: (1) Archdiocese of Regina (2) artmejeur.com (3) Pixels.com
