Tuesday, 9 January 2007

Tuesday of the First Week of the Year

Mark 1: 14-28

The Scriptures today illustrate a central truth of our holy Catholic faith. Jesus Christ was indeed both God and man. Jesus was a man like us in all things except sin. He was subject to the laws of human existence. He had to endure the pain and sorrow we endure in this life, and He endured it perfectly. He tasted death so that we might have life. At the same time, Jesus was the Son of God, and so, even in his human life, possessed authority over the world. He is at once our brother, and the King of kings.
In today’s Gospel, we see Jesus exercising authority over sickness and death. He drives an unclean spirit out of a man who is possessed. When the people hear Jesus teaching, and see Him performing spectacular deeds of healing, they are amazed at Him. They are astonished because of something unique: Jesus teaches with authority, and commands even the demons. The people tell of Him throughout all of Galilee because they so impressed by Him. They are impressed that His teaching is different from anything they have heard: “he teaches as one having authority, and not like the scribes.”
Jesus’ teaching is not like any other. He is not simply a holy prophet, a good teacher, or the founder of a religious sect. He is the only begotten Son of God, Who became man for our salvation. It is through Jesus Christ that the world is saved and re-created. So, the Church is like not any other religious institution. In the Church, which Christ founded on the rock of the Apostle Peter, is found the fullness of the truth, and the means to salvation for all mankind.
Jesus teaches with authority, and so does His holy Church. We rejoice and are amazed in God’s love for us, revealed in the person of Christ, and in the life of the Church. In our joy and amazement, we, too, are called to spread the name of Jesus throughout the whole world. The Church depends on every baptized person to spread the love and truth of Jesus Christ to others. We can do so with confidence, for we are brothers and sisters of Christ, the very Son of God.