Breaking the Word

1^st Week in Ord. Time, Wednesday – 11^th January 2023 — Gospel: Mark 1,29-39

Sources of Strength

After a busy day teaching and healing people, Jesus slipped out of Simon Peter’s house to pray alone with God. When the disciples awaken, the disciples notice Jesus is missing, and go to look for him. The crowds were also looking for him, because when they found Jesus, they said “everyone is searching for you.” They expressed the desire of every person.  However, the crowds wanted to see Jesus again, not to hear his word, but to experience his healing, and see him perform miracles. Jesus did not permit popular acclaim to change his priorities. He doesn’t concern himself too much with what others might have thought. He got up from his prayer and headed out to the next town. Now being alone with the Father seems to be the best preparation for the next stage of his public ministry: leaving Capernaum and preaching in other villages. This is the response of Jesus to instant popularity. He doesn’t seek fame, but instead prefers time alone with the Heavenly Father. This vital encounter gave him light and strength to every other encounter for the rest of the day. His goal is not to please people, but to do the will of his Father in heaven. In order to imitate Jesus in his intimacy with the Father, we need to put into practice Paul’s advice to Colossians, “whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Col 3,17).

1^st Week in Ord. Time, Tuesday – 10^th January 2022 — Gospel: Mark 1,21-28

Command to Silence

The first miracle in the Gospel of Mark is an exorcism. The casting of exorcism indicates that the kingdom has indeed drawn near and therefore, Jesus taught with authority and the crowds were astonished at his teaching. The “new teaching” is that Jesus is able to exorcise the demon by a mere word. This is the first time in Marks’ Gospel that we come across what is commonly known as “the command to silence”. This is a Markan technique in which Jesus commands sometimes demons (1,25;1,34), sometimes those he has healed (1,44) and sometimes the family members of the one healed (5,43) not to make known his identity or that he has been the one who has healed them. This technique is used to denote that Jesus did not want people to mistake him for merely an exorcist or miracle worker but wanted them to realize that he was the Christ who would suffer, die on the cross and be raised.