4th Sunday of the Year (B)

(Edited) Reflections (From) 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), January 29, 2012

Liturgical readings

Deuteronomy 18:15-20
Psalm 95
1 Corinthians 7:32-35
Mark 1:21-28

"Jesus rebuked him sharply."

We live in a world that has acquired much scientific and technological know-how that a majority forget that there is a world beyond just the physical. This is a spiritual world where God's Spirit and His ancient enemy battle for the possession of souls. In the early Christian centuries (ca. 540s A.D.), St. Gregory calls the ancient enemy against God, "hostis antiquus", and mentions it in his biography on St. Benedict of Nursia. Now this is the ancient enemy which the gospel this Sunday presents, and this enemy can take the form of unclean spirits. Seeing him present in a man, Jesus confronted this unclean spirit who challenged Jesus' authority. Jesus sharply rebuked the unclean spirit until with a loud shriek, it came out of the man.

The gospel of Mark describes unclean spirits as noisy, destructive, and crying out or shouting with a loud voice. That is why Jesus' response to such unclean spirits was always: "Be silent, come out of the man". If the mystery of God and His mercy was revealed to all Christians in the Person of Jesus, then the mystery of evil is revealed (at least in how the gospel of Mark describes it) as something noisy, violent and against Jesus. One will discover in this passage of Mark and in the other passages about unclean spirits, that Jesus, in His divine mercy, cares to act as a Savior to men with unclean spirits; He saves them by banishing the unclean spirit with His divine authority.

What do present gospel studies say about this passage from Mark? Bible scholar Wilfrid Harrington defines this unclean spirit in Mark's gospel as a demon. Harrington writes that the struggle between the demon and Jesus in the gospel passage, is also a struggle that is continued in the life of everyone of us - whatever our state of life. Whether that evil comes from within us (through our weakness against temptations and distractions in life and work), outside us, or from both within and without, we all can learn from this gospel. It is Jesus (in the community of the Church and in the Sacraments) who can use His authority to expel evil and heal individuals from its influence - which is generally manifested in various infirmities or habits of anger or greed.