Words of Strength and Integrity: The Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time, 2024

                                               Words of Strength and Integrity:

The Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time, 2024 

January 28, 2024

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Deuteronomy 18:15-20; Psalm 95; 1 Corinthians 7:32-35; Mark 1:21-28

 

I would have liked to have been in the synagogue where Jesus first taught. Scripture said, "The people were astonished at his teaching.” What exactly did he say and how did it differ from other teachers, especially those who were trained in the Torah? He was a man without formal training, and somehow, he interpreted the Torah meaningfully and sensibly for people to be amazed. What did the people need to hear? Every preacher wants input on how to improve.

 

Jesus interpreted his message differently than the Scribes, and it had a profound effect upon his listeners because it was weighty and relevant. His way emphasizes the importance of words and the power they contain when delivered skillfully. We cannot think the power of speaking rests only with Jesus because we have the authority and the mandate to speak powerfully.

 

We are in the middle of a national election cycle in which politicians speak as politicians do, but they are not models for our speech. Through their words, politicians defend, affirm their positions, and persuade voters to come to their platform. They are not seeking to understand the electorate. In other news platforms, we hear others stating opinions and making declarative statements on world events where they do not have depth of knowledge. For instance, we often hear people asserting what should happen in the Middle East when they only made a religious pilgrimage once. They are not speaking from a knowledge base of great depth and experience. Finally, we hear people swearing or using vulgar words as a way of expressing their disgust and anger. Certainly, other words could articulate better what one is feeling.

 

Have we even really tried to speak truthfully and powerfully? Do we choose words that affirm the other person? We become credible when we listen more and speak less. Too many people want to speak, and no one listens to them. The person does not know how to be heard, and the person may ramble because they want someone else to understand immediately what they are experiencing, and yet the person is disregarded, which only causes more loneliness and isolation. We can learn the art of speaking the truth skillfully so that the other person can hear the points that will enable them to grow in grace. No one person owns the truth. We do have claims to truthful portions, and we are guided by perceptions and misperceptions that must be challenged so our words have integrity. 

 

From the start, Jesus was able to speak words that invited disciples to his style of life. Words can blow people away. The man with the unclean spirit could not withstand the words of power that Jesus spoke, and he knew that Jesus came to destroy evil. We too can destroy evil with our words when we choose them thoughtfully. We have the most incredible power at the tip of our tongues. With our propensity to love and the proper words to convey our charity, we possess the most powerful and the most unknown energy of the world. Isn’t that exciting? This is the Good News of Jesus Christ. 

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

 

Monday: (2 Samuel 15) At this, David said to all his servants who were with him in Jerusalem: "Up! Let us take flight, or none of us will escape from Absalom. Leave quickly, lest he hurry and overtake us, then visit disaster upon us and put the city to the sword."

 

Tuesday: (2 Samuel 18) Absalom unexpectedly came up against David's servants.
He was mounted on a mule, and, as the mule passed under the branches of a large terebinth, his hair caught fast in the tree. He hung between heaven and earth while the mule he had been riding ran off.

 

Wednesday: (2 Samuel 24) King David said to Joab and the leaders of the army who were with him, "Tour all the tribes in Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba and register the people, that I may know their number."

 

Thursday: (1 Kings 2) Take courage and be a man. Keep the mandate of the LORD, your God, following his ways and observing his statutes, commands, ordinances, and decrees as they are written in the law of Moses, that you may succeed in whatever you do,

 

Friday (Malachi 3) Lo, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me;
And suddenly there will come to the temple the LORD whom you seek, And the messenger of the covenant whom you desire.

 

Saturday (1 Kings 3) God said, “Ask something of me and I will give it to you.”
Solomon answered: “You have shown great favor to your servant, my father David,
because he behaved faithfully toward you, with justice and an upright heart;

 

Gospel: 

 

Monday: (Mark 5) When he got out of the boat, at once a man from the tombs who had an unclean spirit met him. The man had been dwelling among the tombs, and no one could restrain him any longer, even with a chain.

 

Tuesday: (Mark 5) One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward.
Seeing him he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, saying, "My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live."

 

Wednesday (Mark 6) When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue,
and many who heard him were astonished. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him?

 

Thursday (Mark 6) Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits. He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick –no food, no sack, no money in their belts.

 

Friday (Luke 2) Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.
This man was righteous and devout, awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.

 

Saturday (Mark 6) He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” People were coming and going in great numbers, and they had no opportunity even to eat. So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place.

 

Saints of the Week

 

January 28: Thomas Aquinas, priest and Doctor (1225-1274), studied in a Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino as a boy. He joined the newly formed Dominicans where he studied in France and Italy. He is a giant scholar. He wrote much on Scripture and theology, including his summation of theology (Summa Theologiae). He wrote several songs for liturgy, such as the Tantum Ergo, Pange Lingua, and Adoro Te Devote.

 

January 31: John Bosco, priest (1815-1888), formed his Society to aid children who were imprisoned. He used Francis de Sales as his inspiration. He taught poor and working class boys in the evenings wherever it was possible to meet them - in fields, factories, or homes. A sister community was set up to assist young girls who were sent to work. 

 

February 2: The Presentation of the Lord is the rite by which the firstborn male is presented in the Temple as an offering to God. It occurs 40 days after the birth while the new mother is considered ritually unclean. Two church elders, Simeon and Anna, who represent the old covenant, praise Jesus and warn his mother that her heart will be pierced as her son will bring the salvation of many.

 

February 3: Blase, bishop and martyr (d. 316), was an Armenian martyr of the persecution of Licinius. Legends hold that a boy, choking to death on a fishbone, was miraculously cured. Blase's intercession has been invoked for cures for throat afflictions. The candles presented at Candlemas the day earlier are used in the rite of the blessings of throats.

 

February 3: Angsar, bishop (815-865), became a monk to preach to pagans. He lived at the French Benedictine monastery of New Corbie and was sent to preach in Denmark and Sweden. He was made abbot and then became archbishop of Hamburg. He is known as the Apostle of the North because he restored Denmark to the faith and helped bolster the faith of other Scandinavians. 

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• January 28, 1853. Fr. General John Roothaan, wishing to resign his office, summoned a General Congregation, but died on May 8, before it assembled. 
• January 29, 1923. Woodstock scholastics kept a fire vigil for several months to prevent the Ku Klux Klan from setting the college on fire. 
• January 30, 1633. At Avignon, Fr. John Pujol, a famous master of novices, died. He ordered one of them to water a dry stick, which miraculously sprouted. 
• January 31, 1774. Fr. General Laurence Ricci, a prisoner in Castel S Angelo, claimed his liberty, since his innocence had been fully vindicated. He received from the Papal Congregation the reply that they would think about it. Pope Clement XIV was said at this time to be mentally afflicted. 
• February 1, 1549. The first Jesuit missionaries to go to Brazil set sail from Lisbon, Portugal, under Fr. Emmanuel de Nobrega. 
• February 2, 1528. Ignatius arrived in Paris to begin his program of studies at the University of Paris. 
• February 3, 1571. In Florida, the martyrdom of Fr. Louis Quiros and two novices, shot with arrows by an apostate Indian.