To be quite honest this
morning, I talked with Fr. Johnson and Fr. Gilles and looked so many different
commentaries over and I was trying to figure out, where do I go with these
scripture readings today. So just let
the Spirit take over.
In that gospel of Mark that
I just proclaimed it just hit me. This
is St. Mark’s gospel, Chapter 1, verse 21.
In this, in Mark’s gospel, really is Jesus’ first day at work, you could
describe it. This is the beginning of
His public ministry. And here He is, His
first time in front of all the people making quite a scene.
You know a lot of times
maybe when you and I may start our first day of work, we don’t want to rock any
boats, huh? We kind of want to slide
into this, maybe get to know our fellow co-workers. First day at school, think of it that way,
you’re not going to make the teacher get on your case right away, or your first
time on the team. Maybe you want to
impress the coach or impress the teacher but we try to do it, most of us, let’s
get to know the lay of the land a little bit before we make a scene, or let our
fame spread.
But here’s Jesus, first
time, walks into the synagogue and what does he do? Wham, bam, right away, drive out a
demon. Now go back into that culture of
that time to get the setting. People at
that time believed that there were such things as demons and spirits who had
power over their lives. So if there was
some type of a physical sickness, an emotional unbalance, spiritual sickness,
they would say there were demons in that person.
In this particular passage a
man with an unclean spirit. Spirits that
in their world would render a person unclean or unfit to come into the temple
even to pray and to worship God. So if
you had an awareness that there was something evil in their life today, or a
spirit controlling you, you wouldn’t be able to come into the church to
pray. That was their mentality, their
culture at that time.
We in our day can say, “No
spirit’s control me. I have power over
my own life. It’s my body. I do what I want with it.” And yet so many times too don’t we blame
somebody else. It’s your fault that I’m
not happy. It’s their fault in
What happens so many times. We’ll get back into that gospel. Something from the first reading just popped
into my mind too. And the Responsorial
Psalm. “If today you hear His voice,
harden not your hearts” What hardens our
hearts? Fears, anxieties? What are the demons perhaps that you and I
give over to? What are the fears that we
allow? When we get fearful what do we
do? We get very defensive don’t we? And then we do not hear, either the voice of
compassion, somebody else, we do not hear in our hearts the presence of Jesus
because we block it out. The fear
becomes so consuming, and so dominating, and so controlling and that’s why the
Responsorial Psalm said, do not harden your hearts, do not put up a block or a
wall and keep God out. Powerful words.
Go into the second
reading. Paul says, “I should like you
to be free of anxieties.” Thank you very
much Paul. Great. How are we going to do that? And then Paul says, “Now those of you who are
unmarried men don’t be anxious about other things and if you are married, why
are you so anxious about how you are going to please your husband or your
wife.” You’re probably sitting there
saying, “What do you mean? Isn’t that
the goal of marriage, to please my husband, to please my wife? To provide for our children?” Yes.
Understand what Paul is
trying to say. Paul is not condemning
you whether you’re married or single. He
is not trying to say that the celibate life, such as I live, is better than the
married life or the single life of someone who is not celibate or the married
life where you have a husband, wife and children. Whatever your state in life Paul is trying to
say, do you live your life trying to please the Lord? And you live your life pleasing the Lord when
you are faithful to your husband, when you are faithful to your wife, when you
are loving and caring for your family, when you are obedient to your mom and
dad, when you do show love and compassion for one another. And you do please the Lord when I as a single
person live my life in compassion and understanding. You, the parish community of St. Alphonsus
are my spouse. It is you at this point
in time in history that I commit my life for better, for worse, for richer, for
poorer, in sickness and health. That is
how I live out my vocation. And you as the
people of St. Alphonsus Parish have a right to hold me accountable. How do I image Christ to you? How do I give you the compassion and the
mercy and the truth and the honesty of Jesus?
You are my spouse. I have to be
faithful to you and you in turn are faithful to me. We together make the presence of Jesus
visible by the way we live our lives.
That’s what I hear Paul saying.
When we are faithful to our calling.
Does that make sense? It makes
sense to me.
Yesterday afternoon I had a
beautiful wedding here, where a young man and woman committed their lives to
each other as husband and wife in their Sacrament of Marriage. And I told them, by the way you live your
life you bring the presence of Jesus to your life, to your family and wherever
you go as husband and wife, how you live out your vows you are being faithful
to the call that God entrusts to you.
That’s what Paul is trying to say.
It’s really beautiful. It’s not a condemnation of any one way of
life, saying one is better or the other.
We each do it differently.
So now we come back to the
gospel where we started. Here’s Jesus,
beginning His public ministry and He drives out this evil spirit. What’s Jesus doing? Jesus is saying that the power of God, that I
have within Me, is stronger than the power of any evil spirit or any
demon. And Jesus then passes on that
power, that authority to you and to me.
So you and I as followers of Jesus, through our baptism and through our
participation in the Eucharist today will we get the authority and the power of
Jesus to drive out fear, anxiety and evil.
There is where we belong.
Everyone of us here this morning, wherever your journey will take you
today, in your own families, to strangers, throughout your school week, your
work week, you have the authority and the power of Jesus within you. To drive evil out, any unclean spirits,
anyway that evil comes through fear, anxiety, doubt, sickness, sinfulness,
selfishness, pride, greed, anger. You
and I are called to come into the midst of that and put a different power at
work. The power of God. That’s what Jesus is saying to you and to
me. I believe today we can drive out
evil by the way we live our lives.
But as I said, go back to
Paul. You and I will do it in our love
for our husbands and wives, for our children, for our parents, for our
siblings, wherever you go how you live your life you will bring the presence of
the Lord. It is not a frightening
experience.
At the wedding yesterday,
another minister with me, a Lutheran pastor about 75-years-of-age. He was a dear friend of the groom. And so we
co-celebrated the wedding ceremony. And
before we were going out Pastor Dan and I were talking. As I say he is about 75-years-of-age so he’s
retired. He looked at me and he said, of
course he’s married being a Lutheran pastor, he said, “It’s a great life isn’t
it? Are you happy?” I said, “Yes I am. I’m very happy in the life, the vocation that
God has given to me.” He said, “I’ve had
a good life as well. How God has worked
through my ministry.” So just put it
right there before we went out to do a wedding ceremony, how God works through
each and every one of us. Whether
Lutheran pastor or a Catholic priest, whether married or single, divorced,
separated, widow, widower, young, old, we each are here and God wants to work
through us. We have that authority and
power of Jesus. Claim it. Live it.
Feel it.
I want to close with a
little prayer. You may have heard this
prayer before and again I just came across this this morning so how God is
always working through our lives.
I asked God for strength
that I might achieve, I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked for help that I
might do great things, I was given infirmity that I might do better things.
I asked for riches that I
might be happy, I was given poverty that I might be wise.
I asked for power that I
might have the praise of men, I was given weakness that I might feel the need
for God.
I asked for all things that
I might enjoy life, I was given life that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing that I asked
for but everything I had hoped for.
Almost despite myself my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am, among all people truly
blessed.
Each of us is truly blessed.