On Christmas Day and then again yesterday, the opening verses of the Letter to the Hebrews were proclaimed, reminding us that God’s Word was revealed to us in partial and various ways in the Hebrew Scriptures. However, the final revelation is complete in the person of Jesus Christ. Today we hear that all things, both that which is good and that which is evil, have been made subject Him. In the Gospel today, we see Jesus with complete authority in his words and in his deeds as he teaches in the synagogue of Capernaum and expels an unclean spirit who claims to know who Jesus is.
To be sure, some of the personalities of the Hebrew Scriptures were able to do such deeds. Moses bested the evil magicians of Egypt, Joshua fought against the evils of Canaan, Samuel was able to discern God’s choice of David over his older brothers, and Job was able to win an inner struggle that tried to persuade him to abandon God. They all point the way to the One who has ultimate control. Throughout Mark’s Gospel, Jesus will demonstrate that he can read the minds of those who plot against him, can control the forces of nature, can conquer death and disease, and even cast out demons. Jesus is the personification of God’s authority over all things.
In the past months, and even in the past week, we have seen evil grip our nation. Perhaps some personal evils have confronted us in the past months or weeks. The important thing for us to realize is that there is no evil that can possibly happen that is not material for the power of the Messiah, our Lord. There is no evil that can happen in human life that we cannot put before Christ in prayer or at this Mass with the hope of his help. We cannot dictate the form of that help, but we can with good reason put our trust in him in even the most hopeless situations. He has tasted suffering and death for all of us and become himself their antidote.
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator