First Reading – Deuteronomy 18:15-20 ©
Responsorial Psalm – Psalm
94(95):1-2, 6-9 ©
Second Reading - 1 Corinthians
7:32-35 ©
Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 11:25
Alternative
Acclamation – Matthew 4:16
The Gospel According to Mark 1:21 –
28 ©
(NJB)
Priests and priestesses were ordained to serve the interests of human beings, typically those of the ruling class, including their own. Even those priests who are well intentioned, nevertheless serve in hierarchical structures formed and governed by motivations. Even when an individual comes close to approximating the divine, it is only the image of the divine they hold in their hearts, an image they are attempting to approximate, while failing at every turn.
We are only human beings, and though the image of God dwells within us, representing the fullness of our potential in its perfection, none of us are able to see it clearly.
While human beings do possess an innate ability to recognize what is true. We are all compromised; every expression of the truth coming from a human being is conditioned by that compromise, only the most simple expressions may be trusted everything else is necessarily flawed.
It is God who makes us well, it is God who creates in us the possibility of wellbeing. Our wellbeing is rooted in the divine, there are no gods save God, and God is not a king.
All creation belongs to God, all that is good and all that we fear; everything, no matter how blissful or troubling, everything comes from God and everything we endure will redound to the good in the end.
It is good to show our respect for the creator, to sing in praise of God, our loving parent. It is good to praise the divine, who has prepared the way for each of us.
Be mindful!
Even the apostle is liable to asserting his personal beliefs and foibles into the rubrics of the Church; not everything he says should be accepted on its face...he is not always wise and good.
Paul believed that people should withdraw from public life, stop procreation and wait on God to deliver humanity from the miseries of the world. If he could have, he would have had all of us living chaste and celibate lives behind the walls of a cloister, men living with men and women living with women…until the end.
The apostle errs.
The church is not obligated to follow him in his error, the more humble thing would be to acknowledge the truth…that we have erred, and move on.
This is the truth:
It is the desire of God, the creator of the universe, it is God’s desire that we follow the way that Jesus taught, to be merciful, love justice and walk humbly all the days of our life. It is God’s desire that in so doing we prosper and multiply.
Know this!
The teachings of Jesus cannot be treated like a shell game, though they often are, and have been since the beginning, as Matthew’s Gospel illustrates. The way of Jesus is not a long con, it is not a bait and switch, it is a simple teaching that cannot be controlled or owned by any one group of people.
God has hidden nothing from us; the truth is in the open for anyone to bear witness to, live by and understand. The wise and the powerful, the learned and the clever, the weak and the meek, everyone has access to the same truth, to the knowledge of God, of justice, of hope and love.
Who are the wise and powerful, who are the learned and the clever, who are the faithful and childlike?
In every generation, you will see a new group labeling the elder group as out of touch, blind, privileged, in the dark…corrupt.
It is an endless cycle, and the calling for us remains the same; we are called on to love justice, be merciful, do good, serve God through the loving service we provide to one another: to our families, to our friends, our neighbors, the stranger, even our adversaries.
Just because a person may be wise and powerful, learned and clever or a child of the Church, does not mean they recognize the truth when they see it, or that they will act upon it when they do.
It is not your station in society, it is not how other people regard you, it is not the titles you have earned or the ways that you have been marginalized that give you “the tell” on how you will fulfill the calling to follow Jesus. What matters is what is in your heart and your willingness to trust in the content of your hope.
Be mindful.
Take care when you speak from the scriptures.
When you observe the authors attempting to fit their narrative of Jesus’s into a picture that makes it look as if he is fulfilling a prediction someone has made about the future. Be wary; this is always a false. Even if a prediction had been made, and even if Jesus did the thing that was predicted, it is false to suggest that Jesus’ actions were in fulfillment of prophecy.
Prophets only speak of the future for two reasons; to engender hope and to warn of danger. The words of a prophet are always addressed to the people in their own time, in their own place.
Prophecy is never meant to guide the lives of future generations, except in the cases when the prophet is addressing an issue of universal truth, such as the nature of justice, which is itself unchanging.
Know this!
The Gospel writers were propagandists; they fabricated many of the details of Jesus’ life to suit their own narrative about who Jesus was, why he was necessary, and what his life and death meant for the early church.
In today’s narrative the Gospel writers place Jesus directly in the tradition of John the Baptist, with the words “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” This is an effort on behalf of the early church to subsume the ministry of John the Baptist into its own. It is a continuation of that narrative, meant to harness the energy of John’s movement after his arrest and murder.
Consider the Gospel for today, it is packed with nuance.
Begin by unpacking:
This is the first record of Jesus in his ministry as a public teacher, now depicted as picking up where the Baptist left off. He is still in Palestine, on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. He is beyond the borders of Judea, half-way between Jerusalem and Damascus.
Jesus is a Rabbi, he begins his ministry in a synagogue
The synagogues are of the diaspora, Jewish communities outside of the Holy Land. Synagogues are the seat of the Pharisaic sect of Judaism. Pharisees are a distinct group of teachers; they promulgate the law, and Rabbis are teachers in that movement. They are different from the Scribes, and the priests of the temple. All of these distinctions are communicated in the opening paragraph:
Jesus the Pharisee, Jesus the Rabbi is teaching with authority, unlike the Scribes in Jerusalem.
One man calls him out. Not because he is possessed by demons, but because he afraid of what Jesus’ teaching represents.
He asks a good question, “What do you have to do with us?” Indicating that in this particular community, Jesus is an outsider. His teaching authority is recognized, but he is a visitor.
The man asks, “Are you here to destroy us?” Indicates that he perceives Jesus’ teaching to be a threat to the established order, and therefore quite possibly to his entire community.
He addresses the claim that Jesus’ followers are promoting: he addresses the claim that Jesus is the “Holy One of God.” His manner is unfriendly, even adversarial, it is quite possibly that he is leveling an indictment against Jesus: a charge of hubris at the least, though it is potentially a charge of blasphemy. By raising this charge he intends to undermine Jesus’ authority in the synagogue. Then Jesus commands the man to silence, and Jesus prevails.
This scene is depicted dramatically in the gospel, as if Jesus were commanding an unclean spirit to come out of the man, a spirit of disobedience and falsehood. It is presented as Jesus casting out a demon or demons, and healing a man who was possessed. This scene could be depicted with less drama, metaphor and allegory. It should be presented simply, as Jesus commanding his authority, to convert a dissident and make them a believer.
The narrative does not depict a supernatural challenge to Jesus’ authority, but an ordinary challenge from a member of the community. It was not easy for Jesus to convince the man, it was a convulsive struggle, but Jesus prevailed; he prevailed because the community had been ready to receive Jesus’ teaching at the outset, and his victory in the disputation with the man who argued with him was a foregone conclusion, but how Jesus managed the situation, as a healer, bolstered his authority.
Be like Jesus in your ministry, be a healer; it is the best way to serve the interests of the divine. Heal with humility, heal with love, heal in the interest of justice, as servant of mercy, in pursuit of the way to God.
First Reading – Deuteronomy 18:15-20 ©
I Will
Raise Up a Prophet and Put My Words into His Mouth
Moses said to the
people: ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like myself, from
among yourselves, from your own brothers; to him you must listen. This is what
you yourselves asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the Assembly.
“Do not let me hear again” you said “the voice of the Lord my God, nor look any
longer on this great fire, or I shall die”; and the Lord said to me, “All they
have spoken is well said. I will raise up a prophet like yourself for them from
their own brothers; I will put my words into his mouth and he shall tell them
all I command him. The man who does not listen to my words that he speaks in my
name, shall be held answerable to me for it. But the prophet who presumes to
say in my name a thing I have not commanded him to say, or who speaks in the
name of other gods, that prophet shall die.”’
Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 94(95):1-2, 6-9 ©
O that today you
would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
Come, ring out our
joy to the Lord;
hail the rock who saves us.
Let us come before
him, giving thanks,
with songs let us hail the Lord.
O that today you
would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
Come in; let us bow
and bend low;
let us kneel before the God who made us:
for he is our God
and we
the people who belong to his pasture,
the flock that is led by his hand.
O that today you
would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
O that today you
would listen to his voice!
‘Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as on that day at Massah in the desert
when your fathers
put me to the test;
when they tried me, though they saw my work.’
O that today you
would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
Second
Reading - 1 Corinthians 7:32-35 ©
Give Your
Undivided Attention to the Lord
I would like to see
you free from all worry. An unmarried man can devote himself to the Lord’s
affairs, all he need worry about is pleasing the Lord; but a married man has to
bother about the world’s affairs and devote himself to pleasing his wife: he is
torn two ways. In the same way an unmarried woman, like a young girl, can
devote herself to the Lord’s affairs; all she need worry about is being holy in
body and spirit. The married woman, on the other hand, has to worry about the
world’s affairs and devote herself to pleasing her husband. I say this only to
help you, not to put a halter round your necks, but simply to make sure that
everything is as it should be, and that you give your undivided attention to
the Lord.
Gospel
Acclamation – Matthew 11:25
Alleluia, alleluia!
Blessed are you,
Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for revealing the mysteries of the kingdom to
mere children.
Alleluia!
Alternative
Acclamation – Matthew 4:16
Alleluia, alleluia!
The people that
lived in darkness has seen a great light; on those who dwell in the land and
shadow of death a light has dawned.
Alleluia!
The Gospel According to Mark 1:21 – 28 ©
Unlike
the Scribes, He Taught Them with Authority
Jesus
and his disciples went as far as Capernaum, and as soon as the sabbath came he
went to the synagogue and began to teach. And his teaching made a deep
impression on them because, unlike the scribes, he taught them with authority.
In
their synagogue just then there was a man possessed by an unclean spirit and it
shouted, ‘What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy
us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God.’ But Jesus said sharply, ‘Be
quiet! Come out of him!’ And the unclean spirit threw the man into convulsions
and with a loud cry went out of him. The people were so astonished that they
started asking each other what it all meant. ‘Here is a teaching that is new’
they said ‘and with authority behind it: he gives orders even to unclean
spirits and they obey him.’ And his reputation rapidly spread everywhere,
through all the surrounding Galilean countryside.
The Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time
(Year B)
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