Fr. Roger J. Landry
Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan
Tuesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time, Year I
January 10, 2023
Heb 2:5-12, Ps 8, Mk 1:21-28
To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
The following points were attempted in the homily:
- Today we begin a new liturgical season, exceptionally not on the first Monday of Ordinary Time, but on the First Tuesday, since yesterday we completed the Christmas Season with the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord, which because of Christmas, Mary Mother of God and the Epiphany all being celebrated on Sunday, was moved to Monday. Every year Ordinary Time begins with the Gospel of St. Mark and in, alternate years, either the Letter to the Hebrews, like we do this year, or the First Book of Samuel, which we will hear next January. If we had begun yesterday as is normally foreseen, we would have pondered the beginning of Mark and Hebrews and the double message the Church gives us to set our spiritual table for the year: that Jesus is the Word who summarizes in himself all that God wants to communicate to us, that he took on our nature precisely to communicate to us by his words and witness in a way most fitting for us as human beings, and that that Word-made-flesh inaugurated his public ministry in the fullness of time with the eruption of his kingdom telling us to do four things: repent, believe, follow him and fish for men and women. Today we will build on those foundations.
- Today’s passage from the Letter to the Hebrews says that this Son who says it all, even though he was higher than the angels and the angels were created through him, was made “for a little while lower than the angels,” taking on our nature so that he could “suffer death … that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” This was so, being made “perfect through suffering,” he might lead “many children to glory” precisely through suffering. Jesus humbled himself in this way not simply to speak to us about this glory to which we’re called by the Lord, who is mindful of us and cares for us; he came to show us the path of salvific suffering and lead us through this suffering to glory. The Word speaks to us through his body language so that he might say to us both “this is my body given for you” and “do this in memory of me.” This is the nature of Jesus’ consecration in coming into the world. He did all that he did so that we might be sanctified. That’s why the Letter to the Hebrews says significantly: “He who consecrates and those who are being consecrated all have one origin,” namely God the Father and the depth of his fatherly love. Because of this origin, because of this consecration, because of this love, the Letter to the Hebrews says that Jesus “is not ashamed to call them ‘brothers’ saying: ‘I will proclaim your name to my brethren, in the midst of the assembly I will praise you.’” Jesus has come to proclaim the Father’s name and praise to us so that we can join him in the Father’s home. That’s who Jesus is and that’s what he’s about at the general level.
- We see how Jesus goes about accomplishing that mission of announcing to us God’s message, of communicating to us the name and praise of God, of leading us to perfection through suffering, in the Gospel. Right after Jesus began his public ministry and called his first disciples to follow him, he entered the Capernaum synagogue and began to announce and incarnate God’s word through teaching. St. Mark tells us, “The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.” The Scribes would teach by citing Moses, or Scriptural texts, or rabbinical commentaries. Jesus taught in a different way. He spoke with authority because he is the Author of the world. As we’ll see throughout his public ministry, he’ll say things like, “You heard that it was said… but I say to you.” He would say that he himself is the Good Shepherd, the Light of the World, the Resurrection and the Life, the Way, the Truth and the Life. Jesus communicated with a directness and power that came from the fact that he was the origin of what he was speaking about. And the reaction of the crowds was astonishment. They were amazed and said, “What is this? A new teaching with authority.” Jesus showed his authority and the power of his words by the exorcism of a possessed man who happened to be in the synagogue at the time. The very presence of Jesus, his holiness, irritated the demon beyond belief. It convulsed the man and cried out from within him, “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!” And Jesus rebuked the spirit, told him to be quiet and finally to “come out of him!” — and the spirit obeyed, an unforgettable sign of the authority with which Jesus speaks. The question and the challenge for us is whether we are amazed and astonished at Jesus’ message, at Jesus’ healing work, at Jesus himself as he speaks to us. If we are amazed and astonished at Jesus’ teaching, if we recognize he speaks with an authority unlike any other, than we will do what people do when they’re amazed: we’ll behave as if we can’t possibly get enough of his teaching. We’ll devour the Gospels. We’ll seek to enter much more deeply into his words through Bible Study and prayerful lectio divina. We’ll long to meet those who can open up the Word of God to us and help us to experience anew Jesus’ amazing and astonishing authority. It’s key for us at the beginning of the year to rediscover this sense of Jesus’ amazing and astonishing authority and come to Mass each day hanging on Jesus’ words, words that are meant to change our life each day forever.
- Today at this Mass we come into the presence of the same Jesus who taught and healed in the Capernaum Synagogue. His word is so powerful that someone ordained to act in his person can take mere bread and wine and transform it into the Creator of the Heavens and the earth and the Redeemer of the world. That’s the greatest ordinary example of the performative power of Jesus’ word that happens any day in the world when Jesus takes on a priest’s accent and says “This is my body… given for you,” and “This the chalice of my blood… poured out for you and for the many for the forgiveness of sins.” May God give us the grace always to be astonished and amazed when Jesus speaks, so astonished that we prayerfully meditate on his words as the one of the most exciting of all activities, and so amazed that we overcome all obstacles to hear him change simple foodstuffs into himself so that we can enter into a holy communion with him meant to last forever. May we say with joy to Jesus whom we meet in the Eucharist what the demons in today’s Gospel proclaimed about him with dread in the Synagogue: “I know who you are: the Holy One of God!” and help to bring others to share our amazement!
The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1 HEB 2:5-12
It was not to angels that God subjected the world to come,
of which we are speaking.
Instead, someone has testified somewhere:
What is man that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man that you care for him?
You made him for a little while lower than the angels;
you crowned him with glory and honor,
subjecting all things under his feet.
of which we are speaking.
Instead, someone has testified somewhere:
What is man that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man that you care for him?
You made him for a little while lower than the angels;
you crowned him with glory and honor,
subjecting all things under his feet.
In “subjecting” all things to him,
he left nothing not “subject to him.”
Yet at present we do not see “all things subject to him,”
but we do see Jesus “crowned with glory and honor”
because he suffered death,
he who “for a little while” was made “lower than the angels,”
that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
For it was fitting that he,
for whom and through whom all things exist,
in bringing many children to glory,
should make the leader to their salvation perfect through suffering.
He who consecrates
and those who are being consecrated all have one origin.
Therefore, he is not ashamed to call them “brothers” saying:
I will proclaim your name to my brethren,
in the midst of the assembly I will praise you.
he left nothing not “subject to him.”
Yet at present we do not see “all things subject to him,”
but we do see Jesus “crowned with glory and honor”
because he suffered death,
he who “for a little while” was made “lower than the angels,”
that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
For it was fitting that he,
for whom and through whom all things exist,
in bringing many children to glory,
should make the leader to their salvation perfect through suffering.
He who consecrates
and those who are being consecrated all have one origin.
Therefore, he is not ashamed to call them “brothers” saying:
I will proclaim your name to my brethren,
in the midst of the assembly I will praise you.
Responsorial Psalm PS 8:2AB AND 5, 6-7, 8-9
R. (see 7) You have given your Son rule over the works of your hands.
O LORD, our Lord,
how glorious is your name over all the earth!
What is man that you should be mindful of him,
or the son of man that you should care for him?
R. You have given your Son rule over the works of your hands.
You have made him little less than the angels,
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands,
putting all things under his feet.
R. You have given your Son rule over the works of your hands.
All sheep and oxen,
yes, and the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air, the fishes of the sea,
and whatever swims the paths of the seas.
R. You have given your Son rule over the works of your hands.
O LORD, our Lord,
how glorious is your name over all the earth!
What is man that you should be mindful of him,
or the son of man that you should care for him?
R. You have given your Son rule over the works of your hands.
You have made him little less than the angels,
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands,
putting all things under his feet.
R. You have given your Son rule over the works of your hands.
All sheep and oxen,
yes, and the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air, the fishes of the sea,
and whatever swims the paths of the seas.
R. You have given your Son rule over the works of your hands.
Alleluia SEE 1 THES 2:13
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Receive the word of God, not as the word of men,
but as it truly is, the word of God.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel MK 1:21-28
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.
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.
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