Lectionary: 71
Reading 1
Dt 18:15-20
Moses spoke to all the people, saying:
“A prophet like me will the LORD, your God, raise up for you
from among your own kin;
to him you shall listen.
This is exactly what you requested of the LORD, your God, at Horeb
on the day of the assembly, when you said,
‘Let us not again hear the voice of the LORD, our God,
nor see this great fire any more, lest we die.’
And the LORD said to me, ‘This was well said.
I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kin,
and will put my words into his mouth;
he shall tell them all that I command him.
Whoever will not listen to my words which he speaks in my name,
I myself will make him answer for it.
But if a prophet presumes to speak in my name
an oracle that I have not commanded him to speak,
or speaks in the name of other gods, he shall die.’”
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 7-9
R. (8) If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD;
let us acclaim the rock of our salvation.
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us joyfully sing psalms to him.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For he is our God,
and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
“Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
Where your fathers tempted me;
they tested me though they had seen my works.”
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Reading 2
1 Cor 7:32-35
Brothers and sisters:
I should like you to be free of anxieties.
An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord,
how he may please the Lord.
But a married man is anxious about the things of the world,
how he may please his wife, and he is divided.
An unmarried woman or a virgin is anxious about the things of the Lord,
so that she may be holy in both body and spirit.
A married woman, on the other hand,
is anxious about the things of the world,
how she may please her husband.
I am telling you this for your own benefit,
not to impose a restraint upon you,
but for the sake of propriety
and adherence to the Lord without distraction.
Alleluia
Mt 4:16
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The people who sit in darkness have seen a great light;
on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death,
light has arisen.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Mk 1:21-28
Then they came to Capernaum,
and on the sabbath Jesus 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.
REFLECTION
SOURCE: Creighton.edu (by Rev. Richard Gabuza - The Institute of Priestly Formation)
THEME: I Know Who You Are
Mark’s gospel marks the inauguration of Jesus’ public ministry with a scene in which he demonstrates his teaching and his power over an “unclean” spirit. Trying to grasp what they have observed, the gathered crowd describes the particular quality of his teaching: he teaches as “one having authority.” This teaching authority is matched by his authority over evil. Yet, for all that, the crowd does not seem to be able to identify the source of this authority and power. The source is identified by an unlikely voice—that of the possessed man, who shouts out: “I know who you are — the Holy One of God!”
Throughout the gospel of Mark, amidst the continual teaching and miracle-working of Jesus, the question lingers: Who is this man? This continues until, at the moment of his death on the cross, another unlikely voice reveals Jesus’ identity: the Roman soldier who sees Jesus die calls out: “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
We can admire the teachings of Jesus. And why not? They have had a major influence on the western world and much beyond. We can marvel at the miracles described in the gospels. But do we really grasp and abide in the truth of WHO HE IS? Jesus, not merely a “good man” or the “best of men,” but the Holy One of God, the Son of God.
And what difference would that make? If we could grasp in a consistent way the truth of who he is, would that change anything in our lives?
Thomas Merton, Trappist monk and one of the best known American Catholics of the last century, experienced his conversion journey in stages. One of the most important experiences of that journey occurred when he visited the Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian in Rome. As he gazed at the mosaic of Christ in glory which surrounds the altar, it suddenly dawned on him: the Jesus spoken of by Christians is no mere “historical figure” but the Lord who is alive and who interacts with those who believe in and worship him. This experience contributed powerfully to Merton’s conversion to a deeper Christian faith, then to the Catholic faith and eventually to his monastic vocation.
Have we encountered Jesus in this way, as someone alive and who is in relationship with us? Or do we still relate to him as someone from “back then” and “out there”? Pope Francis, in quoting words of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, reminds us: “Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.”
Jesus, draw us to know you in our hearts as you are: the Holy One of God, the Son of God, our Savior and Lord, alive and in our midst!
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