January 11, Tuesday Weekday

You have given your Son rule over the works of your hands. — Psalm 8:(see 7)

Mass Readings: Hebrews 2:5-12 / Mark 1:21-28 

A Shocking Event 

There wasn’t anything mild and gentle about the coming of Jesus. In today’s Gospel, when Jesus teaches in the synagogue, a man possessed by an evil spirit shrieks in protest: “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!” (Mk 1:24). All Jesus did was teach in the synagogue but just wait. More shocking things are coming. 

The screaming devil sets the tone for Mark’s Gospel. More than the other three Gospel writers, Mark presents the coming of the Kingdom of God as a startling, sudden, disruptive event. Sometimes we think of Jesus as a kindly teacher of a mild message of peace. In Mark we’ll meet a fierce disturber of the status quo. 

Prayer: Father, may Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.