Tuesday of Week 1 of Ordinary Time – Gospel

Commentary on Mark 1:21-28

Today’s passage is the first part of a day in the life of Jesus in which he carries out the main activities of his mission—teaching and healing. He goes to Capernaum, the centre of much of his work, on a Sabbath day and like every observant Jew, goes to the synagogue. And, like any Jew who wishes to do so, he addresses the congregation.

He begins to teach the people. Much of Jesus’ work will consist of teaching and communicating his message and his vision of life. People are deeply impressed because, unlike the scribes, he speaks with authority. The scribes could only interpret or give the meaning of the Scripture. Jesus spoke in his own right. Jesus speaks in the best tradition of the great prophets. But there is more. Jesus’ authority is empowering and liberating; it is not oppressive or subjugating. He will say in John’s Gospel:

…you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. (John 8:32)

Right there in the synagogue was a man possessed by an “unclean” spirit. It was called ‘unclean’ because of its basic resistance to the holiness of God. This was a world where many unexplained symptoms in people were attributed to evil powers and were often believed to be the punishment for sinful behaviour. The spirit resented the presence of Jesus and said:

I know who you are, the Holy One of God.

It was believed that, by giving a hostile spirit its exact name, one could have power over him. But Jesus silences the evil spirit and tells it to come out of the man, who experiences a kind of fit and cries out.

Again the people are amazed at the power and authority of this man Jesus. He has new teaching and can give orders to evil spirits. The question is being asked: “Just who is this man?” This question is the underlying theme of the first half of Mark’s Gospel.

It for us to submit ourselves to the same empowering authority of Jesus, to listen to his teaching by steeping ourselves in his Gospel message and experiencing his healing and liberation in our lives.

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Tuesday of Week 1 of Ordinary Time – First Reading

Commentary on Hebrews 2:5-12

Today we continue the discussion about the nature of Jesus. It seems clear that those to whom the sermon is addressed are having problems squaring the humanity and the suffering of Jesus with his position as Sovereign Lord and Son of God.

The author replies by emphasising the dignity of human beings in our world:

God did not subject the coming world, about which we are speaking, to angels.

Rather, he ‘subjected’ the world to ‘men’ (humans)—to one Man. The author quotes from Psalm 8 (4-5):

What are humans [Greek, anthropos] that you are mindful of them or mortals [Greek, huios anthropou] that you care for them? You have made them for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned them with glory and honor,
subjecting all things under their feet. (see note.)

The psalm contrasts God’s greatness with man’s relative insignificance, but also stresses the superiority of humanity to the rest of creation, over which we were given stewardship.

Originally, the “son of man” was simply a way of speaking of humans in general but, in this context, there is clearly a reference to the Son of Man—Jesus Christ. Some believe the term, frequently used in the Gospel, comes from this psalm.

Although the human is put on a lower level than the angels, it is to humanity that governance of our world has been entrusted, “subjecting all things under their feet”. God left nothing outside humanity’s control. However:

As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them…

Some translations use “him” instead of “them”, but ‘him’ here seems ambiguous—it can refer to humanity in general, or to Jesus in glory.

The first Christians, despised and persecuted, were still waiting for the coming of God’s reign on earth. Although Christ has already entered his glory, his reign on earth has to continue until he has conquered all his enemies; then we will share in his full and final triumph.

But the Son, who in his incarnation was—with the rest of humanity—made lower than the angels, is now crowned in supreme glory and honour precisely because of his sufferings and death. It was through his undergoing this experience that salvation came to the rest of humanity, because:

…by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

Christ was glorified because he suffered. His triumph seals the redeeming value of his death and guarantees unending life for us.

The all-powerful God, who is the source of all that exists, has brought many of his children to glory. He did this by making his incarnate Son, the “pioneer” of our salvation, perfect through his suffering. What seemed to the Hebrews to be a stumbling block in their acceptance of Jesus is in fact what makes him their Lord. By dying and fulfilling the will of God, Christ becomes the one perfect Saviour, responsible for the entry of human beings into the glory of God.

And it is this which brings Jesus and ourselves united together under one Father, so that Jesus, though our supreme Lord, is “not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters”. In support, the author quotes from Psalm 22:

I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters;
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you. (Ps 22:22)

What the author says here is something we have long become accustomed to accepting, and yet it is indeed a deep mystery—namely, that the glory of God and our salvation should be brought about, not just by God’s Son becoming one of us, but that he should go through such terrible pain and humiliation. The enormity of this mystery is that Jesus:

Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. (John 13:1)

This is proof of Jesus’ love—and hence his Father’s—love for us. So often, we see suffering as a punishment from God, but as is so clear in this text, very often it is in fact a source of grace. It was this the Hebrews (to whom the Letter was sent) found difficult to grasp.

With faith, we know that it was fitting for God to make Jesus “perfect through sufferings”, i.e. consecrated by obedient suffering. Because he is perfected as high priest, Jesus is then able to consecrate his people. If Jesus is able to help human beings, it is because he has become one of us; we are his “brothers and sisters”.

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Note: The pronouns are all actually masculine in the original Greek, but the word for ‘man’—anthropos—is  equivalent to the Latin homo. Both of these words indicate a human person, man or woman. And so  in the Nicene Creed we say of the Incarnation that Jesus ‘homo factus est’ (literally, ‘was made  human’). The Latin word for a male is vir (and for a woman, mulier). The Creed is then saying that Jesus shared his humanity with both men and women.

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