OUR SUNDAY’S IN JANUARY 2012

Mark's Gospel declares Jesus had power over evil. Sadly there is no evil when Mark speaks of ""unclean spirits" - those spirits are amoral, that is, they are neither good or evil. Mark is telling us that the man is ill. We do not know if it is a physical, emotional or spiritual illness; but what we do know is that the man needs help.

The story of Jesus' face to face meeting with an unclean spirit is about teaching, not about a display of God's power. Jesus was teaching all the people in the synagogue, and consequently through Mark He is teaching us, that an old way of life was on the way out. Jesus cast out unclean spirits and demons to show us that a new type of world was being introduced: the Kingdom of God.

A mark of the kingdom is freedom. Having been released from the unclean spirit, the man was now free to rejoin the community and thus be a part of the community.The onlookers were not amazed because Jesus had cast out an unclean spirit; they were amazed because He had the authority/right to do so.

Mark is telling us that Jesus has the right to teach us and who are we to deny His authority?

In too many ways and too many times we think we know better than Jesus.

PATRIARCH – AUGUSTINE I

The Most Rev. John P. Walzer, D.D. Archbishop