Sunday the 28th of January 2024 - Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Deuteronomy 18:15-20/ Psalm 94(95)/ 1 Corinthians 7:32-35/ Mark 1:21-28

Capernaum is a beautiful lakeside location on the north side of the Sea of Galilee. The town now is in ruins, but it is still possible to walk along its streets and on the lakeside. The ruined remains of the synagogue stand on the foundations of an earlier one, the one that Jesus taught in. We hear in the Gospel for today that Jesus taught with authority but there is nothing about what he taught only that it made a deep impression on those that heard it. They recognised that here was a teacher who was different from their regular teachers. Jesus did not follow the usual pattern of relying on other renown Rabbis. Jesus taught by his own authority, the authority that he had because he was God teaching on his own behalf. It was the Word of God, the word made flesh, that was teaching the people directly. Not through the mouth of any other person who might put their own slant on the message but the genuine and direct word of God.

Jesus was the fulfilment of the promise made through Moses in the first reading. Moses was the instrument through which God founded his chosen people. It was to this chosen people that Moses promised another prophet who would speak God’s words. The fulfilment of this prophesy can be seen in the parallels between Moses and Jesus. Both were persecuted at birth, both were driven into exile, both provided food in the dessert, both taught with the authority of God. Jesus taught on his own authority and demonstrated it by addressing evil directly in his healing ministry. Interestingly the evil spirits that encountered Jesus knew exactly who he was, ‘the holy one of God’ and that he was there to oppose the evil in the world they represented. Do we recognise Jesus present to us through our faith, prayer and love or do we recognise him through the evil that resides within and is fearful of the goodness of Jesus? Either way we must see Jesus for who he is and respond accordingly.

We do not often speak of Jesus the prophet although that is one of the rolls he has. Jesus is priest, prophet and king fulfilling the ministry of all three. When we think of a prophet, we tend to think of someone who predicts the future. The prophet of the bible is so much more than that. The main function of a biblical prophet is to speak the word of God to the people of their time. The prophet speaks God’s will for the people and often comes from outside of the recognised teaching authority of the day and is counter cultural. It is the failures of the established religious structures that the prophet is found railing against. Through our baptism we are called to share in the ministry of Jesus and one of those ministries is to be a prophet to the people of our day. To speak the authentic word of God to the world, to speak against the values of the world while upholding the values given to us by God. We as prophets for our time must speak against the destructive nature of the world, the killing of the innocent both at the beginning of life and at the end, poverty, exploitation, lack of human dignity in work, wages, and housing, and all the areas where the dignity of the human being is being eroded. The voice of the prophet is not often popular but none the less it is necessary to speak God’s will to the world.

In the second reading Paul is encouraging Christians to fulfil their calling as prophets in their time. We need to be free or detached from the distractions of the word to do this. The concerns of worldly things distract us and cloud the important things required to live a spiritual life anticipating the day when we will come before the authority of God. These challenges are there in the lives of people who have chosen a celibate life as a priest or religious as they are for others. We can all become preoccupied by the challenges of living in a physical and secular world. Paul speaks of the strains that a married life can create for people living out their lives in the world. Paul himself prefers a life of celibacy presumably because it allows for a total commitment to ministry, but he does not impose such a life on others. What Paul is teaching is that whatever path of life we are on it must be Christ centred and not worldbound. It is the same advice to the married and single and equally to men and women.

The psalm calls us to bow and bend low in public adoration of God, we are called not to harden our hearts but to be open to God’s word spoken with authority so that we can be in communion with God and each other. We are called to total acceptance of the authentic word of God given to us firstly through the prophets but lastly by God himself through the person of Jesus. In coming to Mass together on a Sunday we offer this adoration to God in communion with each other and we depart as prophets speaking God’s word to our world.

God Bless Brendan.