Daily Reflection – Jan 12, 2016
Tuesday 12 January 2016
First Reading: 1 Samuel 1:9-20
Responsorial Psalm:
My heart rejoices in the Lord, my Saviour
1 Samuel 2:1, 4-8
Gospel Reading: Mark 1:21-28
Today’s Note: Tuesday of the First Week of Ordinary Time
Gospel Reading:
Jesus came to Capernaum with his followers,
and on the sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught.
The people were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.
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.
All were amazed and asked one another,
“What is this?
A new teaching with authority.
He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.”
His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.
Reflection:
Hannah’s weeping continues today, so dramatically that the priest Eli believes she is drunk. Hannah responds, “I am a woman deeply troubled…I have been pouring out my heart before the Lord…I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation all this time.” Eli tells her to go in peace for God will hear her plea. The canticle is Hannah’s song of joy when she births Samuel. There is another kind of outcry in the synagogue. Jesus teaches with authority, but when a demoniac begins to cry out, Jesus rebukes the loud and violent spirit. “Even unclean spirits obey him”—and Jesus’ fame spreads.
Jesus was real. In psychological terms, he was authentic and congruent. ‘What you see is what you get’. In Jesus’ time, this was as rare as it can be now. The Scribes and Pharisees were caught up in prestige, power and riches. So, when they taught, it was a case of ‘Do what I say, but not what I do’.
Remember your own experience of being deeply troubled, of pouring out your heart. Where was peace and promise then? Do you have any unfinished business with God? Have you ever felt possessed? Perhaps by irritation, unkind words that you can’t seem to stop, nasty or haughty glares that shame you when you catch yourself.
“Who will save me from this body of death,” Paul cries in Romans 7 – these obsession and compulsions that torment us, and others? Only Christ Jesus. Ask for inner peace for yourself and your loved ones, and peace among families and nations.
Jesus, you wanted to reveal the Father’s love by your every word and action. In any position of power I am given, help me to do the same. For freedom you have set us free, Lord Jesus. You are the savior of the world. We need saving too. We need inner peace so that we might be instruments of your peace.
