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. Our newly installed crucifix. This 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, he 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 is here in 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.
This is what John the Baptist proclaimed: “One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
It happened in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John. On coming up out of the water he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him. And a voice came from the heavens, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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The verb baptize literally means, “to plunge; dunk; or submerge.”
Christians borrowed the word from the Greeks to describe what John was doing at the Jordan River – literally plunging people into water as a sign of their repentance.
For this we call him, “John the Baptist,” but we could also call him, “John the Plunger!”
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The first instance scholars have found this verb – “baptize” – being used is from a pickle recipe.
The recipe states, “You must boil water. Add cucumbers. When they become tender, remove them from the water and baptize them in vinegar.”
If you simply dip a cucumber into vinegar and remove it, it isn’t a pickle. It’s more like a quickle. (A half-pickle).
If you want to turn a cucumber into a pickle, then you must baptize it, allowing it to soak in the vinegar before it becomes a fully-fledged pickle.
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In today’s Gospel, John says that Jesus will “baptize” us with the Holy Spirit. Most Christians receive this divine gift shortly after their birth – and anyone baptized at that age certainly has no recollection of it.
So, if we are to become fully “pickled” Christians, then we must remain in the Holy Spirit through prayer, worship, and charity.
A person who isn’t practicing their faith is like a quickle, a half-pickled Christian.
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How do I practice my faith? How do I remain soaked in the Lord?
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“I baptize you with water,” John says, “but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
If we’ve already received this divine gift, then our faith journey is all about churning that gift into an ever-greater sense faith, hope, and love.
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Image credits: (1) The Baptism of Christ, Andrea del Verrocchico (2) Jar of Pickles, Fine Art America (3) Cruciform Church of Christ
When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage.” When King Herod heard this, he was greatly troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, He inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it has been written through the prophet: And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; since from you shall come a ruler, who is to shepherd my people Israel.” Then Herod called the magi secretly and ascertained from them the time of the star’s appearance. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search diligently for the child. When you have found him, bring me word, that I too may go and do him homage.” After their audience with the king they set out. And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them, until it came and stopped over the place where the child was. They were overjoyed at seeing the star, and on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their country by another way.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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Every so often, I see a car riddled with bumper stickers. They can tell you a lot about a person – what they think or value.
Some bumper stickers are as benign as which exit you’re from on the Parkway. Others are a bit edgier, such as who you want to be president. Then there are seasonal stickers, like, “Keep Christ in Christmas,” and, “Wise men still seek him.”
This last example, “Wise men still seek him,” is perhaps my favorite, because it refers to the Magi in today’s Gospel.
The Magi were “wise,” not because of what they knew, but because of what they asked.
“Who is this newborn child? Is he our King?”
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Often when I hear the confessions of high school students – just beyond the age of Confirmation – they pose the same existential questions as the Magi.
“Who is God? Is he real?”
These basic questions inevitably branch out into more particular ones, such as: “Is there more than one God? Is Jesus God? Does God know me? Do Catholics believe the truth?”
I always tell high schoolers, “It’s a good thing – a wise thing – to ask questions. If we don’t, then we’ve never really thought about our faith. But when you ask a question, you should also take the responsibility of pursuing the answer.”
It’s this – the search for Truth – that inspires the Magi in today’s Gospel, making them truly wise, setting an example for all of us to follow.
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Consider their journey.
We first encounter them near the end of their travels. The Magi have arrived in Jerusalem from a faraway place. The Gospels do not tell us exactly where they came from, only that it was from the “east.”
Scholars believe this caravan of travelers may have come from as far away as Persia. Meaning, their trip to Bethlehem was not a weekend getaway; it was literally a journey of a thousand miles.
It’d be like riding on a camel from Rome to Paris today.
Imagine taking that thousand-mile journey in search of the truth…
These seekers would’ve encountered a number of obstacles along their way: thieves, robbers, and wild animals lurking in the night; desolate places without much water; spontaneous storms; even the wrath of King Herod.
They arrive safely in Jerusalem only because of their persistence. Even then, their journey is not over. Bethlehem, where Jesus lay, was five miles away – a fact the Magi would not have learned without consulting the scribes and chief priests, who reveal the scriptures to them.
As the prophet Micah foretells, “And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah… from you shall come a ruler, who is to shepherd my people Israel.”
When the Magi reach Bethlehem, they finally encounter the Christ-child and worship him, laying gold, frankincense, and myrrh at his feet. Then they return home by another way to share the Good News.
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The Magi teach us two things:
The importance of asking questions… and the correlating responsibility of seeking the answer.
What questions do I have about my own faith? About God?
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I remember asking a crucial Catholic question in college, “Is that piece of bread – the Eucharist – really Jesus?”
I prayed, pondered, researched, and prayed some more for over a year until finally it became clear to me: yes, that is, in fact, our Lord.
So, as a second-year student, I converted to Catholicism – a road that’s led me to becoming a Catholic priest.
Or consider our new crucifix suspended behind the altar. It’s undoubtedly the first thing you see once you enter into the church.
It almost demands that we pause and ask, “Who is this man? What does he have to do with me?”
Like the Magi, have we come to worship him?
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Every so often, I see a car riddled with bumper stickers. Perhaps the one I’d be most likely to put on mine – if not a St. Pius X sticker – would be:
“Wise men still seek him.”
That sticker – and by extension, the Magi – reminds us to ask the bigger questions, and to never stop searching until we find the answer.
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Image credits: (1) Women’s Health (2) Wikipedia (3) The Atlantic
