4th Sunday in OT, February 1, 2009

The Freedom of Embracing the Authority of Christ

Scripture Readings
First Deut 18:15-20
Second 1 Cor 7:32-35
Gospel Mark 1:21-28

Prepared by: Fr. Jonathan Kalisch, OP

1. Subject Matter
• The freedom Christ brings to all who long for new life and new hope.
• Mark begins to set up the dichotomy between the teaching of Jesus and the scribes and
Pharisees. The demon (like the scribes and Pharisees who should have recognized Him)
has knowledge of Jesus, but this alone does not save him.
• The Kingdom of God draws near and cannot be separated from the person of Jesus, who
empowered by the Holy Spirit, embodies God’s power.
2. Exegetical Notes
• Mark uses the astonishment theme (surprise, wonder, awe, and fear) throughout his gospel
(in reaction to Jesus’ teaching, the miracle stories, divine epiphanies, and at the predictions
of the passion) – to weave a rapport with the reader and create a symbolic reaction to the
whole of the Good News.
• Authority is seen as the ability to impose a decision with binding force. Jesus’ teaching is
filled with authority because “he speaks of what he know and testifies to what he has seen”
(cf. John 3:11). Jesus teaches as the God and Lord of Moses himself. The fact that he can
bind Satan through exorcism reveals the full authority of heaven and earth he possesses.
• The casting out of demons is a clear sign of the coming of the Messiah – the One more
powerful than demons. “Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the ruler of this world
be cast out” (John 12:31). This is the first of 4 in Mark: the Gerasene demoniac (5:1-20); the
Syrophoenician woman’s daughter (7:24-30); and the boy with the unclean spirit (9:14-29).
• The exorcism is the first public act of Jesus’ ministry. Transcendent forces recognize Jesus
for who he is. The power of Jesus’ word is seen not only in the fact that people abandon
their occupations to follow him, but that demonic powers cower before it.
3. References to the Catechism of the Catholic Church
CCC #580: “…In Jesus, the Law no longer appears engraved on tables of stone but ‘upon the
heart’ of the Servant who becomes ‘a covenant to the people,’ because he will ‘faithfully bring
forth justice.’”
CCC # 549: “By freeing some individuals from the earthly evils of hunger, injustice, illness and
death, Jesus performed messianic signs. Nevertheless he did not come to abolish all evils here
below, but to free men from the gravest slavery, sin, which thwarts them in their vocation as
God's sons and causes all forms of human bondage.”
CCC # 550: “The coming of God's kingdom means the defeat of Satan's: ‘If it is by the Spirit of
God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.’ Jesus' exorcisms
free some individuals from the domination of demons. They anticipate Jesus' great victory over
‘the ruler of this world’. The kingdom of God will be definitively established through Christ's
cross: ‘God reigned from the wood.’"
CCC #1673: “When the Church asks publicly and authoritatively in the name of Jesus Christ
that a person or object be protected against the power of the Evil One and withdrawn from his
dominion, it is called exorcism. Jesus performed exorcisms and from him the Church has
received the power and office of exorcizing. In a simple form, exorcism is performed at the
celebration of Baptism. The solemn exorcism, called ‘a major exorcism,’ can be performed only
by a priest and with the permission of the bishop. The priest must proceed with prudence, strictly
observing the rules established by the Church. Exorcism is directed at the expulsion of demons
or to the liberation from demonic possession through the spiritual authority which Jesus
entrusted to his Church. Illness, especially psychological illness, is a very different matter;
treating this is the concern of medical science. Therefore, before an exorcism is performed, it is
important to ascertain that one is dealing with the presence of the Evil One, and not an illness.”
4. Patristic Commentary
• St. Irenaeus: “Even the demons cried out, on beholding the Son: ‘I know who you are, the
Holy One of God.” Later the devil looking at him and tempting him would say: ‘If you are the
Son of God.’ All of these thus recognized the Son and Father, yet without believing. So it
was fitting that the truth should receive testimony from all, and should become a means of
judgment for the salvation not only of those who believe, but also for the condemnation of
those who do not believe.”
• St. Augustine: “Compare that with the words of the demons who said almost the same thing:
‘We know who you are, the Son of God’ just as Peter had confessed him as ‘Son of God.’ So
what is the difference? Peter spoke in love, but the demons in fear…So tell us how faith is to
be defined, if even the devils can believe and tremble? Only the faith that works by love is
faith.”
• St. Augustine: “Faith is mighty, but without love it profits nothing. The devils confessed
Christ, but lacking charity it availed nothing. They said, ‘what have we to do with you?’ They
confessed a sort of faith, but without love. Hence they were devils. Do not boast of that faith
that puts you on the same level with the devils.”
5. Examples from the Saints and Other Exemplars
• St. Catherine of Siena’s great desire to be transformed by Christ, was confirmed in her in
the mystical spousal union and the exchange of hearts she had with Christ. In her writings,
she expresses the way to Him, “Love is had only by loving.” Indeed, “It would be very
displeasing to God if you were to set your heart on something of less value than yourself…for
people become what they love.” Finally, “Whoever does not go forward, by that very fact is
turning back.”
6. Quotes

• Pope Benedict XVI: “When Jesus speaks of the Kingdom of God, he is quite simply
proclaiming God, and proclaiming him to be the living God, who is able to act concretely in
the world and in history and is even now so acting.”
• Pope Benedict XVI: “He is telling us: ‘God exists’ and ‘God is really God,’ which means that
he holds in his hands the threads of the world. In this sense, Jesus’ message is very simple
and thoroughly God-centered. The new and totally specific thing about his message is that
he is telling us: God is acting now- this is the hour when God is showing himself in history as
its Lord, as the living God, in a way that goes beyond anything seen before. ‘Kingdom of
God’ is therefore an inadequate translation. It would be better to speak of God’s being-Lord,
of his Lordship.”
• Pope Benedict XVI: “Through Jesus’ presence and action, God has here and now entered
actively into history in a wholly new way. The reason why now is the fullness of time (Mk
1:15) why now is in a unique sense the time of conversion and penance, as well as the time
of joy, is that in Jesus it is God who draws near to us. In Jesus, God is now the one who acts
and who rules as Lord – rules in a divine way, without worldly power, rules through the love
that reaches ‘to the end’ (Jn 13:1) to the Cross.”
• Pope Paul VI, Evangelii nuntiandi 11: “Christ accomplished this proclamation of the kingdom
of God through the untiring preaching of a word which, it will be said, has no equal
elsewhere: ‘Here is a teaching that is new, and with authority behind it.’ (Mc 1,27) ‘And he
won the approval of all, and they were astonished by the gracious words that came from his
lips. (Lc 4,22) There has never been anybody who has spoken like him.’ (Jn 7,46) His words
reveal the secret of God, His plan and His promise, and thereby change the heart of man
and his destiny.
• Pope John Paul II, Catechesi tradendae 7: “This teaching is not a body of abstract truths. It
is the communication of the living mystery of God. The Person teaching it in the Gospel is
altogether superior in excellence to the ‘masters’ in Israel, and the nature of His doctrine
surpasses theirs in every way because of the unique link between what He says, what He
does and what He is. Nevertheless, the Gospels clearly relate occasions when Jesus
‘taught.’ ‘Jesus began to do and teach’- with these two verbs, placed at the beginning of the
book of the Acts, St. Luke links and at the same time distinguishes two poles in Christ's
mission.”
• Pope John Paul II, Catechesi tradendae 7: “Jesus taught. It is the witness that He gives of
Himself: ‘Day after day I sat in the temple teaching.’ It is the admiring observation of the
evangelists, surprised to see Him teaching everywhere and at all times, teaching in a manner
and with an authority previously unknown: ‘Crowds gathered to him again; and again, as his
custom was, he taught them’; ‘and they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them
as one who had authority.’ It is also what His enemies note for the purpose of drawing from it
 grounds for accusation and condemnation: ‘He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all
Judaea, from Galilee even to this place.’”
• Luigi Giussani: “This method is the source of knowing how to act in order to recognize
God’s intervention in our lives. In our seeking, we must adhere first to our own natures and
be mindful that the outcome of our search could well demand a radical change, a breaking
through and beyond the limits of our natures…If such an exceptional reality intervened in
history, adherence to it must be possible for everyone, always: ‘And look, I am with you
always; yes to the end of the time’ (Mt 28:20)…If Jesus came, he is, he exists, he remains in
time with his unique, unrepeatable claim, and he transforms time and space, all time and
space.”
• Luigi Giussani: “We must highlight reason’s possible instinctive resistance when confronted
with the annunciation of the Incarnation. It is as if man were to reject the notion that the
mystery stooped so low as to become human words and deeds. Man, in all ages of history,
resists the consequence of the mystery made flesh, for, if this Event is true, then all aspects
of life, including the sensible and the social, must revolve around it. And it is precisely man’s
perception of being undermined, no longer being the measure of his own self, that places
him in the position of refusal.”

7. Other Considerations
• Christ is Who we yearn for: “Whether we realize it or not, in our hearts we yearn for God, and
so when we come into contact with someone close to God, our hearts are moved. When the
crowds came into contact with Jesus Christ, the Son of God become man, their hearts burst
with astonished joy. Jesus is no average teacher, nor even a great preacher. Jesus Christ is
Lord, the ‘Holy One of God,” and when he began his public ministry, the people could tell”
(Bartunek).
• The connection between our human longing and yearning for God, and our response in faith
and love to that encounter with Him.
Recommended Resources
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Mark ed. by Thomas C. Oden and Christopher A.
Hall, Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1998.
Benedictus: Day by Day with Pope Benedict XVI, ed. by Peter John Cameron, OP. Magnificat,
2006.
John Bartunek, The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer, Hamden, CT:
Circle Press, 2007.
John R. Donahue, SJ and Daniel J. Harrington, SJ, The Gospel of Mark, Sacra Pagina series
ed. By Daniel J. Harrington, SJ, Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2002.
Luigi Giussani, At the Origin of the Christian Claim, trans. by Viviane Hewitt, Buffalo: McGill-
Queen’s University Press, 1998.
The Navarre Bible: St. Mark Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1999.
The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 8, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995.
http://www.clerus.org/bibliaclerus/index_fra.html