READING OF THE DAY First reading from the Book of Deuteronomy 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.’” PSALM 95 "Come, let us cry out with joy to Yahweh, acclaim the rock of our salvation. Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving, acclaim him with music. For Yahweh is a great God, a king greater than all the gods. In his power are the depths of the earth, the peaks of the mountains are his; the sea belongs to him, for he made it, and the dry land, moulded by his hands.
Come, let us bow low and do reverence; kneel before Yahweh who made us! For he is our God, and we the people of his sheepfold, the flock of his hand. If only you would listen to him today! Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as at the time of Massah in the desert, when your ancestors challenged me, put me to the test, and saw what I could do!
For forty years that generation sickened me, and I said, 'Always fickle hearts; they cannot grasp my ways.' Then in my anger I swore they would never enter my place of rest."
Second reading from the First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians 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.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY From the Gospel according to Mark 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.
Today’s Gospel passage (cf. Mk 1:21-28) tells of a typical day in Jesus’ ministry; in particular, it is the Sabbath, a day dedicated to rest and prayer: people went to the synagogue. In the synagogue of Capernaum, Jesus reads and comments on the Scriptures. Those present are attracted by his manner of speaking; their astonishment is great because he shows an authority that is different to that of the scribes (v. 22). Furthermore, Jesus shows himself to be powerful in his deeds as well. Indeed, a man of the synagogue lashes out, addressing him as the One sent by God: He recognizes the evil spirit, orders him to leave that man, and thus drives him out (vv. 23-26).
The two characteristic elements of Jesus’ action can be seen here: preaching, and the thaumaturgic work of healing: He preaches and heals. Both of these aspects stand out in the passage of the evangelist Mark, but preaching is emphasized the most; exorcism is presented as a confirmation of his singular “authority” and his teaching. Jesus preaches with his own authority, as someone who possesses a doctrine derived from himself, and not like the scribes who repeated previous traditions and laws that had been handed down. They repeated words, words, words, only words: as the great singer Mina sang, [“Parole, parole, parole ”]; that is how they were. Just words. Instead in Jesus’ words have authority; Jesus is authoritative. And this touches the heart.
Jesus’ teaching has the same authority as God who speaks. Indeed, with a single command he easily frees the possessed man from the evil one, and heals him. Why? Because his word does what he says. Because he is the definitive prophet. But why do I say this, that he is the definitive prophet? Let us remember Moses’ promise: Moses says, “After me, long after, a prophet like me will come” — like me! — “who will teach you”. (cf. Dt 18:15). Moses proclaimed Jesus as the definitive prophet. This is why he speaks not with human, but with divine authority, because he has the power to be the definitive prophet, that is, the Son of God who saves us, who heals us all.
The second aspect, healing, shows that Christ’s preaching is intended to defeat the evil present in humankind and the world. His word is pointedly directed against the kingdom of Satan: it puts him in crisis and makes him recoil, obliging him to leave the world. Touched by the Lord’s command, this possessed, maniacal man is freed and transformed into a new person. In addition, Jesus’ preaching conforms to a logic that is contrary to that of the world and of the evil one: His words reveal the upheaval of a mistaken ordering of things. In fact, the demon present in the possessed man cries out as Jesus approaches: “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?” (v. 24).
These expressions indicate the total extraneousness between Jesus and Satan: they are on completely different planes; there is nothing in common between them; they are the opposite of each other. Jesus, authoritative, who attracts people by his authority, and also the prophet who liberates, the promised prophet who is the Son of God who heals. Do we listen to Jesus’ words, which are authoritative? Always, do not forget, carry a small copy of the Gospel in your pocket or in your bag, to read throughout the day, to listen to that authoritative word of Jesus. And then, we all have problems, we all have our sins, we all have spiritual afflictions; let us ask Jesus: “Jesus, you are the prophet, the Son of God, the one who was promised to us to heal us. Heal me!” Asking Jesus to heal our sins, our ills.
The Virgin Mary always kept Jesus’ words and deeds in her heart, and followed him with complete availability and faithfulness. May she help us too to listen to him and follow him, to experience the signs of his salvation in our lives.
FAUSTI - The Word, the principle of creation, is also the principle of redemption. Just as it has the power to call us to follow Him, it also has the power to defeat the spirit of evil within us. “ Shut up," Jesus says to the unclean spirit. We can say that the whole Gospel is an exorcism: it is a "logotherapy" in which the Word, by telling us our truth, heals us from the lie and restores our identity as children of the Father and brothers among us. Mark, after having told us Who is that Jesus who invites us after Him, now tells us in synthesis what He does for us: by the power of His Word He delivers us from evil (21-28) and sets us free for good (29-31) . In the artificial setting of a Sabbath day - for those who meet and follow Him, the Sabbath without sunset begins! - we receive a panorama of His activity, His Messianic program in the first Messianic day. The Word of Jesus has the power to move us too to follow Him, as it did with the four first disciples; and the first effect that it has on us who follow Him, is precisely that of freeing us from the spirit of evil. Exorcism is included in the twofold mention of the authority of Jesus' Word. Placed at the beginning, the exorcism has a programmatic value: all the activity of Jesus has as its purpose to to free man from the spirit of evil, which holds him in bondage. It is called an unclean spirit - for Israel, an unclean spirit is everything related to death. It is the opposite of the Spirit of God, lover of life (Wisdom 11,26). For Mark, he is first of all the tempter precisely because steals the Word, replacing in man the Word of God, which makes him His son, with the lie that distances him from Him, his life. Satan has his visible face in the wealth that seduces, is the god mammon. In exorcisms it is described as the one who possesses, alienates and tortures man. He is called satan, the devil, the evil one, the tempter, the prince of darkness, the father of lies (Jn 8:44). He is the prince of this world (Jn 14:30); it has its own kingdom and is strong; indeed, after sin, everything is placed in its hands. Having abandoned the source of his own self, man digs cisterns with difficulty, cracked cisterns that hold no water but dead water (Jeremiah 2:13). Having lost his own identity, he seeks it in what increasingly alienates him from himself: having, being powerful, appearing. Hence the growing dissatisfaction and disesteem of self, the loneliness, the mortal anguish, the desire of saving oneself, the unquenchable lusts, the insatiable egoism, the injustices, the wars and the rest. All this evil, once accomplished, remains, solidifies and organizes itself in structures that multiply iniquity - true machines of oppression, of which man, their factor, becomes a mechanism. In the end, he remains imprisoned in them like a worm in the cocoon that he himself has made. But this undue evil is not our definitive situation. Jesus came to defatalize history and return it to our hands. He frees us with the Word of Truth, capable of silencing the lie that is at the origin of our slavery, showing us our reality as children and that of God Who is Father. This is why exorcisms are the sign of the coming of the Kingdom, the end of man's slavery. Not to recognize this is to lie to the evidence, it is the sin against the Holy Spirit (3,26-30). Christ's death on the cross, defeated for love of those who kill Him, will be the definitive exorcism: by revealing who God is for man, satan's lie will be definitively won.
WONDER BEFORE THE ONLY BEGOTTEN SON Poems Karol WOJTYLA This light slowly excavated the events of each day, to which women's eyes and hands have become accustomed since childhood - Slowly, in these events, it uncovered such boundless light that the hands alone joined when the Word lost its dimension.
My son - in the village where everyone knew us both you used to say "Mother" to me - and no one scrutinised to the end the unbelievable events that everyone touched every day - and Your life became confused with the life of the poor to whom You wanted to belong in the daily toil of the arms.
But I knew: the Light that winds through these events like the fibre of a spark hidden beneath the bark of days is You. I did not radiate it -
yet you were more mine in that glow, in that silence than as the fruit of my own flesh and blood.
READING OF THE DAY
RispondiEliminaFirst reading from the Book of Deuteronomy
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.’”
PSALM 95
"Come, let us cry out with joy to Yahweh, acclaim the rock of our salvation.
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving, acclaim him with music.
For Yahweh is a great God, a king greater than all the gods.
In his power are the depths of the earth, the peaks of the mountains are his;
the sea belongs to him, for he made it, and the dry land, moulded by his hands.
Come, let us bow low and do reverence; kneel before Yahweh who made us!
For he is our God, and we the people of his sheepfold, the flock of his hand.
If only you would listen to him today!
Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as at the time of Massah in the desert,
when your ancestors challenged me, put me to the test, and saw what I could do!
For forty years that generation sickened me, and I said,
'Always fickle hearts; they cannot grasp my ways.'
Then in my anger I swore they would never enter my place of rest."
Second reading from the First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians
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.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY
From the Gospel according to Mark
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.
THE WORD OF THE LORD
POPE FRANCIS
RispondiEliminaANGELUS 31 January 2021
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Buongiorno !
Today’s Gospel passage (cf. Mk 1:21-28) tells of a typical day in Jesus’ ministry; in particular, it is the Sabbath, a day dedicated to rest and prayer: people went to the synagogue. In the synagogue of Capernaum, Jesus reads and comments on the Scriptures. Those present are attracted by his manner of speaking; their astonishment is great because he shows an authority that is different to that of the scribes (v. 22). Furthermore, Jesus shows himself to be powerful in his deeds as well. Indeed, a man of the synagogue lashes out, addressing him as the One sent by God: He recognizes the evil spirit, orders him to leave that man, and thus drives him out (vv. 23-26).
The two characteristic elements of Jesus’ action can be seen here: preaching, and the thaumaturgic work of healing: He preaches and heals. Both of these aspects stand out in the passage of the evangelist Mark, but preaching is emphasized the most; exorcism is presented as a confirmation of his singular “authority” and his teaching. Jesus preaches with his own authority, as someone who possesses a doctrine derived from himself, and not like the scribes who repeated previous traditions and laws that had been handed down. They repeated words, words, words, only words: as the great singer Mina sang, [“Parole, parole, parole ”]; that is how they were. Just words. Instead in Jesus’ words have authority; Jesus is authoritative. And this touches the heart.
Jesus’ teaching has the same authority as God who speaks. Indeed, with a single command he easily frees the possessed man from the evil one, and heals him. Why? Because his word does what he says. Because he is the definitive prophet. But why do I say this, that he is the definitive prophet? Let us remember Moses’ promise: Moses says, “After me, long after, a prophet like me will come” — like me! — “who will teach you”. (cf. Dt 18:15). Moses proclaimed Jesus as the definitive prophet. This is why he speaks not with human, but with divine authority, because he has the power to be the definitive prophet, that is, the Son of God who saves us, who heals us all.
The second aspect, healing, shows that Christ’s preaching is intended to defeat the evil present in humankind and the world. His word is pointedly directed against the kingdom of Satan: it puts him in crisis and makes him recoil, obliging him to leave the world. Touched by the Lord’s command, this possessed, maniacal man is freed and transformed into a new person. In addition, Jesus’ preaching conforms to a logic that is contrary to that of the world and of the evil one: His words reveal the upheaval of a mistaken ordering of things. In fact, the demon present in the possessed man cries out as Jesus approaches: “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?” (v. 24).
These expressions indicate the total extraneousness between Jesus and Satan: they are on completely different planes; there is nothing in common between them; they are the opposite of each other. Jesus, authoritative, who attracts people by his authority, and also the prophet who liberates, the promised prophet who is the Son of God who heals. Do we listen to Jesus’ words, which are authoritative? Always, do not forget, carry a small copy of the Gospel in your pocket or in your bag, to read throughout the day, to listen to that authoritative word of Jesus. And then, we all have problems, we all have our sins, we all have spiritual afflictions; let us ask Jesus: “Jesus, you are the prophet, the Son of God, the one who was promised to us to heal us. Heal me!” Asking Jesus to heal our sins, our ills.
The Virgin Mary always kept Jesus’ words and deeds in her heart, and followed him with complete availability and faithfulness. May she help us too to listen to him and follow him, to experience the signs of his salvation in our lives.
FAUSTI - The Word, the principle of creation, is also the principle of redemption. Just as it has the power to call us to follow Him, it also has the power to defeat the spirit of evil within us.
RispondiElimina“ Shut up," Jesus says to the unclean spirit. We can say that the whole Gospel is an exorcism: it is a "logotherapy" in which the Word, by telling us our truth, heals us from the lie and restores our identity as children of the Father and brothers among us. Mark, after having told us Who is that Jesus who invites us after Him, now tells us in synthesis what He does for us:
by the power of His Word He delivers us from evil (21-28) and sets us free for good (29-31) .
In the artificial setting of a Sabbath day - for those who meet and follow Him, the Sabbath without sunset begins! - we receive a panorama of His activity, His Messianic program in the first Messianic day.
The Word of Jesus has the power to move us too to follow Him, as it did with the four first disciples; and the first effect that it has on us who follow Him, is precisely that of freeing us from the spirit of evil.
Exorcism is included in the twofold mention of the authority of Jesus' Word.
Placed at the beginning, the exorcism has a programmatic value: all the activity of Jesus has as its purpose to
to free man from the spirit of evil, which holds him in bondage. It is called an unclean spirit - for Israel, an unclean spirit is everything related to death.
It is the opposite of the Spirit of God, lover of life (Wisdom 11,26).
For Mark, he is first of all the tempter precisely because steals the Word, replacing in man the Word of God, which makes him His son, with the lie that distances him from Him, his life.
Satan has his visible face in the wealth that seduces, is the god mammon.
In exorcisms it is described as the one who possesses, alienates and tortures man. He is called satan, the devil, the evil one, the tempter, the prince of darkness, the father of lies (Jn 8:44).
He is the prince of this world (Jn 14:30); it has its own kingdom and is strong; indeed, after sin, everything is placed in its hands.
Having abandoned the source of his own self, man digs cisterns with difficulty, cracked cisterns that hold no water but dead water (Jeremiah 2:13).
Having lost his own identity, he seeks it in what increasingly alienates him from himself: having, being powerful, appearing.
Hence the growing dissatisfaction and disesteem of self, the loneliness, the mortal anguish, the desire of saving oneself, the unquenchable lusts, the insatiable egoism, the injustices, the wars and the rest.
All this evil, once accomplished, remains, solidifies and organizes itself in structures that multiply iniquity - true machines of oppression, of which man, their factor, becomes a mechanism.
In the end, he remains imprisoned in them like a worm in the cocoon that he himself has made.
But this undue evil is not our definitive situation.
Jesus came to defatalize history and return it to our hands.
He frees us with the Word of Truth, capable of silencing the lie that is at the origin of our slavery, showing us our reality as children and that of God Who is Father.
This is why exorcisms are the sign of the coming of the Kingdom, the end of man's slavery.
Not to recognize this is to lie to the evidence, it is the sin against the Holy Spirit (3,26-30).
Christ's death on the cross, defeated for love of those who kill Him, will be the definitive exorcism: by revealing who God is for man, satan's lie will be definitively won.
WONDER BEFORE THE ONLY BEGOTTEN SON
RispondiEliminaPoems Karol WOJTYLA
This light slowly excavated the events of each day,
to which women's eyes and hands have become accustomed since childhood -
Slowly, in these events, it uncovered such boundless
light
that the hands alone joined when the Word
lost its dimension.
My son - in the village where everyone knew us both
you used to say "Mother" to me - and no one scrutinised to the end
the unbelievable events that everyone touched every day -
and Your life became confused with the life of the poor
to whom You wanted to belong in the daily toil of the arms.
But I knew: the Light that winds through these events
like the fibre of a spark hidden beneath the bark of days
is You.
I did not radiate it -
yet you were more mine in that glow, in that silence
than as the fruit of my own flesh and blood.