A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (Mk 1:21-28)
In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit; he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are–the Holy One of God!” Jesus rebuked him and said, “Quiet! Come out of him!” The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him.
Jesus demonstrates his divine authority in two ways in today’s Gospel passage: in word and action, or in preaching and in healing. In the synagogue as he preaches, a man with an unclean spirit cries out to him, recognizing his identity as true God and true man, the Holy One of God and Jesus of Nazareth. With a word, Jesus commands the unclean spirit to be quiet and come out of the man. The witnesses of the exorcism recognize, amazed, that Jesus, unlike the scribes, is “a new teaching with authority.” In preaching, he expresses the word of God as the Word incarnate; in healing, he liberates all from the oppression of sin and evil.
God, help me understand the scene from today’s Gospel as it relates to my life today. The source of all truth, Jesus teaches with authority and wisdom unlike any human teaching. The unclean spirit recognizes the divinity of your Son immediately unlike many people in Jesus’ time and even today. What the unclean spirit hated to cry out, aware of its imminent destruction, I say with wonder and faith that is easily shaken: “I know who you are–the Holy One of God!” My Lord and my God, strengthen my faith!
From the Gospel acclamation: “Receive the word of God, not as the word of men, but as it truly is, the word of God.”
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.