Father Donald Senior, CP

Jan. 28: 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Thursday, January 25, 2018

Dt 18:15-20; Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 7-9; 1 Cor 7:32-35; Mk 1:21-28

Teaching with power

All during this liturgical year, the readings on most Sundays will be from the Gospel of Mark. Each of the Gospels has its own distinctive way of portraying Jesus and his mission. 

If there is one word to describe the Jesus of Mark’s Gospel, it would be “healer.” More intensely than the other Gospels, Mark portrays Jesus’ mission as one of confronting the pain and anguish afflicting human life and bringing in its place healing and reconciliation. 

That is clear in the Gospel account we have for this Sunday. Here we see Jesus performing the first action of his mission. Jesus made the seaside village of Capernaum his home base and often taught there. One Sabbath Jesus encounters a man “with an unclean spirit.” 

Throughout the Gospel of Mark, human sickness and trauma are described as an assault by an “evil spirit.” Judaism at the time believed that all human plight — sickness, paralysis, leprosy, mental illness, even death itself — was ultimately a scourge of evil inflicted on the inherent God-given beauty of creation. This emphatically did not mean that someone became ill because they themselves were evil or had sinned. Rather through the power of evil, suffering, pain and death itself had become the fatal destiny of humankind.

The encounter with this tormented man in the synagogue of Capernaum perfectly illustrates Jesus’ mission of healing. The demon that inflicts suffering on this man cries out dramatically: “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!” 

Unwittingly this evil spirit has spoken the truth: Jesus is the Holy One of God and he has come precisely to destroy evil and renew human life. That is exactly what Jesus does in this first act of his ministry. With a word, Jesus drives out the evil one and the man whose life was a living hell is healed.

The evangelist Mark has carefully crafted this inaugural scene. Jesus’ act of healing is framed with comments about “teaching.” The story begins with the people’s amazement at the force of Jesus’ teaching, “for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.” The story concludes with a reference to Jesus’ teaching: “What is this?” the witnesses exclaim, “a new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.” The Greek word translated here as “authority” is “exousia,” literally, “power.” When Jesus speaks, healing happens.

This story sets the tone for the entire mission of Jesus as portrayed by Mark. Jesus “teaches” in this opening scene not with words but with the power of healing action. In the opening scene of Mark’s Gospel when Jesus emerged from the waters of the Jordan after being baptized by John, the Spirit of God descended on Jesus and the voice from heaven declared, “You are my Son, my beloved.” 

Driven by that same divine Spirit, Jesus went into the desert, confronting and overwhelming the spirit of evil that tried to prevent him from his mission. Now in this scene at Capernaum we see that this Spirit-driven Jesus is first and foremost a healer whose mission is to liberate humans from evil and restore them to the fullness of life.

“Healing,” in fact, is a fundamental way of characterizing the Christian mission to the world. Anyone who has experienced a serious illness, trauma or addiction knows that such experiences afflict every level of our being: not just physically, but psychologically, socially and spiritually. 
Conversely, healing cannot be just physical but to be complete must affect every level of our being as humans. That is why the notion of healing has, from the beginning of the church, been a privileged way of describing the Christian commitment to the world, just as it was the most fundamental expression of the mission of Jesus himself. Healing — in all its dimensions — is what we as disciples are to bring to our world.

 

 

Topics:

  • scripture

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