SERMON/HOMILY FOR TUESDAY OF THE 1ST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR II 9TH JANUARY 2024

SERMON/HOMILY FOR TUESDAY OF THE 1ST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR II 9TH JANUARY 2024

1Samuel 1:9-20; 1Sam.2; Mark 1:21b-28

The Power of Listening to God’s Word

At various times, we have reflected on the art of Jesus teaching. One thing we have keenly observed is that Jesus teaches before he performs miracles. His teaching is like a theoretical class while the miracle is like a labouratory test. Without the former, there will be no basis for the latter.

However, the event of the gospel reading of today improves our understanding of Jesus, such that we come to realize that the above demarcation between Jesus’ teaching and performance of miracle is not always the case. In today’s gospel, the art of performing miracle is subsumed inside the art of teaching. While Jesus taught, a miracle starting happening.

Jesus entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and taught them in a manner that the people were not quite familiar with; he taught them with authority. This means that the words he used in teaching were more personal. The Scribes could not have been more convinced of the Word than Jesus who himself is the Word. So, Jesus is teaching with authority because he is teaching himself.

While this teaching with authority attracted the astonishment of his listeners, it also made uncomfortable an unclean spirit in a man who too was present in the temple. Note that Jesus did not particularly attend to this man in question, neither was he carrying out a deliverance session. The mere fact that the man listened to Jesus speak was enough to unsettle the unclean Spirit. You cannot be a child of God when you are not discomforting evil.

Beloved, the Word of God is the miracle we desire. If we understand this, then our faith will grow tremendously.

It is sheer ignorance and utter contradiction for one to abandon the Word of God in search of miracles. Someone once describe the Bible like a manual. Just as you need to be obedient to the instructions of a manual in order to enjoy maximum efficiency from a particular product, so also we need to abide by the Word of God in order to enjoy his all abiding presence in and with us.

The experience of Hannah in today’s first reading shows that miracles do not result from some sort of magical art; rather, miracles are the consequence of dwelling in the presence of God all the time. If our lives must be free of the works of the evil one, we must constantly fumigate ourselves with the Word of God. The moment our lives are no longer smelled by this fumigation, we become conducive environment for the devil to operate. It is in reading, reflecting and doing the Word the God that we resist the devil.