Last weekend, on the Sunday of the Word of God, Deacon John mentioned the importance of reading Sacred Scripture on our journey of faith. He spoke about reading the Gospel of Mark as a good start to reading Scripture, since it is the shortest of the Gospels and easy to delve into. This is the third Sunday in January in which we have had readings from the first chapter of Mark’s Gospel. Earlier in the month, we celebrated the Baptism of the Lord at the end of the Christmas season, as we heard of Jesus' baptism in the Jordan River. Then, last Sunday, we heard to Jesus calling four fishermen to become his disciples at the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Today, we hear of Jesus’ visit to the village of Capernaum on the northern shore of that Sea. Today’s Gospel gives us a glimpse into Jesus’ everyday life at the start of his public ministry, with the people being astonished at the authority of his teaching and with his healing of a man possessed by an unclean spirit.
Today's Gospel starts with Jesus' visit to the synagogue in Capernaum. We hear a lot about the Temple in Jerusalem in the Bible, but perhaps we don’t give much attention to the importance of the synagogue in Ancient Israel. In Jesus’ day, the synagogue was a place of worship and prayer. Sacrifices were not made by the priests in the synagogues; that was reserved for the Temple in Jerusalem. Most Jews seldom went to the Temple, for it was far away from the villages where most of them lived. Most just went the Temple once or twice a year for major celebrations. On the Jewish Sabbath, they went to the synagogue. Usually, readings from Sacred Scripture, preaching, and prayer were a part of the synagogue services. There were no formal clergy or priests in the synagogue; the average practicing Jews could get up in the synagogue to preach. As soon as Jesus starts preaching in the synagogue in our Gospel today, the people sense that he is someone very special.
As I thought of Jesus visiting the synagogue, I thought of our very vibrant place of worship here at St Jude. Our church campus is not only the place for Mass, but also of many different parish activities. Other than Mass, we have had many of those in-person activities curtailed with the pandemic. With Lent starting soon and with our new outdoor stations of the cross being installed, hopefully families and groups will be able to come onto our parish grounds to pray the stations of the cross during Lent. It has seemed strange not having the different groups meeting in-person during the pandemic. Hopefully, in the next few months, with the vaccines rolling out, we will be able to start coming onto our parish campus more with different activities and meetings. Until then, our virtual world is still going to be a place we can meet.
We hear of Jesus healing a man with an unclean spirit today. In Jesus’ day, if a person was sick or acted in an unacceptable way, he was thought to have an evil spirit. Would some of them in ancient society be diagnosed as epileptic or schizophrenic or with a mental illness today? Probably. But as the Church recognizes exorcisms and possession by evil spirits, and since Jesus would be able to recognize an evil spirit, we are called to accept that reality as well. The point is, Jesus healed people who were hurting and who were broken in different ways. He made them whole. He liberated them from their afflictions. The point is that they were healed, made whole again, by Jesus and liberated from their affliction.
There are forces in the world today that affect us with paralyzing fear, just as they did to the people of Jesus’ day. It’s really not the evil spirit that did the most damage, but the person’s fear of that spirit. What set Jesus apart is that he shows no fear in the face of the unclean spirit in the synagogue, as he commands the spirit: “Be quiet! Come out of him!” The man is thrown into convulsions, but he is free. More importantly, the man feels free.
What are our fears? What spirits are we afraid of? What things, persons, or places prevent us from doing what we really want to do, from being the person we want to be or that God wants us to be? We must identify our fears, see them within ourselves, and not simply blame something else for them. Once we recognize our fears, Jesus can help free us. Jesus has authority if we give him that authority, if we believe in his authority, if we believe Jesus is stronger than our fears.
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