Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Fr Dominic’s Homily

Jesus was born in Bethlehem but then moved back to Nazareth where he grew up and lived for about 30 years. Today we hear about Jesus entering the Synagogue in Capernaum which was a village not too far away.

We hear in this gospel from Mark that he goes into the small local Synagogue on the Sabbath which if you remember is not a Sunday but a Saturday which was the last day of the week. In fact it actually started on a Friday evening which could have been when Jesus had entered.

Now the big temple in Jerusalem was where the main events occurred – in a way it was similar to our Cathedral. People would travel up for big annual feasts but it was also the place where all the animal sacrifices would take place.

However the smaller local synagogues were had more of an input from its local inhabitants and local preachers had more of an active role. And there were no sacrifices.

So we hear that Jesus as a local preacher was teaching the people here this day. And the people were astonished at his teaching because he taught with authority and with power in his words.

Not just were his words captivating and dynamic because he knew his scripture inside out but he accompanied his teachings with spiritual signs and miracles.

They were thinking that they knew all there was to know about him. We can often see people according to how we want to see them. We put them in a box of our own making and of course when it’s wrong it backfires.

So they are surprised by his knowledge and think surely this is the carpenter and repair man. Of course Jesus is the ultimate repair man as eventually repairs humanity’s relationship with God.

Now in Marks Gospels we often hear the word immediately. Immediately Jesus did this. Or immediately this happened… Mark is trying to emphasise the continual energy and action of the ministry of Jesus.

We hear that this day a man arrived with an unclean spirit or a fallen angel within him.

You might ask how can a possessed man enter the synagogue on a regular basis? Well the demon lies low probably so it can survive and perhaps wasn’t really being challenged in any sense by the quality of the worship and the teaching! However – it obviously didn’t know that Jesus was going to be there that day.

It obviously recognises Jesus. Notice that the demons always recognise who Jesus is immediately. The people, however, take a long time to realise with repeated teaching and even miracles. And even then many fail to or choose not to!

It says to him have you come to destroy us? They know they will be eradicated at some point. This is one of the signs of the Messiah – that he will eradicate the kingdom of evil and restore holiness.

It then goes on to say I know who you are – the Holy One of God. Notice how the demons change their pronouns. They swap between using a singular and a plural pronoun. In other words there are many of them taking turns to speak.

But they don’t know the actual plan of Jesus. They see his eventual death as a victory to them. So they don’t try to stop him. However the crucifixion and death of Jesus of course breaks the power of Satan and frees humanity from sin and death. Lucifer in his pride never saw this.

And they don’t call him The Messiah, or the Son of God or the King of Israel. No they call him the Holy One of God. This is a specific title found in the Old Testament that refers to Aeron as being the High Priest that the demons knew full well. This is of course exactly who Jesus is.

But Jesus hasn’t told anyone yet who he really is. He doesn’t want his identity known yet – it’s not his time. So he silences them and exorcises the man. The audience are astounded at how easily he does this. And are astounded at the whole drama of the event!

This all reminds us who exactly the person of Jesus really was. So much more than just a holy man and a prophet. He is the one who sets us free from the evil influences of the world who try to lead us away from God which we can see more and more in our world of today.

Let us make sure we are always listening to his authority, his voice and his teaching in our lives.