Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

A couple of weeks ago in the second reading St. Paul talked about our bodies being for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body (1 Cor 6:13c-15a, 17-20). Therefore, our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. We have to remain pure as He is pure. In our Church’s teachings we also know that Jesus is the Groom and the Church is His bride. We, God’s people, are the Church; therefore, we are the bride of Christ. Jesus is looking for a pure bride. One that He can be proud of. We realize that we are not pure. We are sinners. We need to be constantly purified of our sins, so that we can become the pure bride that Jesus desires. Jesus helps us in the process of purification. We have the sacraments of reconciliation and the Eucharist to cleanse us of sin and keep us without stain. We need to receive these sacraments often in order to remain pure for Jesus.

Last week, we heard of the calling of Jesus’ first disciples (Mk 1:14-20). Jesus called Peter, Andrew, James, and John to follow Him. They were called to be “fishers of men.” They were called to proclaim the Gospel, “Repent, and believe in the Gospel.” After the Resurrection and ascension of Jesus, and receiving the Holy Spirit, the first disciples did as Jesus asked them to do – they went out to all the nations and proclaimed the Gospel.

Before this could happen though, Jesus had to teach His disciples what to do. This leads us to the Gospel reading today (Mk 1:21-28). After Jesus had called the two sets of brothers, Peter & Andrew - James & John, Jesus began His public ministry. Jesus entered the synagogue on the sabbath and began to teach. In the Gospel according to Mark there is no hesitation – Mark starts the action immediately. Jesus is baptized; He calls His first disciples; then He enters the synagogue to teach. While Jesus is teaching He is confronted by an unclean spirit. “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?” It’s interesting how the evil spirits immediately recognized who Jesus was. There was no veil over their eyes. There was nothing preventing them from seeing the divinity of Jesus. It was different with the people. The people around Jesus could not see it. Their eyes were unable to recognize Jesus as being divine. Even after seeing so many miracles the people questioned, “Who is this? He has a new teaching, and the unclean spirits obey him.”

I think it is also interesting that this one unclean spirit speaks for all the unclean spirits. Please notice that the unclean spirit says, “I know who you are.” He is speaking in the singular. However, the unclean spirit also says, “What have you to do with us, . . . Have you come to destroy us?” The evil spirits seemed to realize that their time was running short. Now God was among them, and God was going to get rid of them. Which is exactly what happened. Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and sent it away, most likely back to hell where it belonged.

What was Jesus doing here? Jesus was saving a person whose life was disrupted by an unclean spirit. Jesus was healing him and bringing him wholeness again. The unclean spirits cause damage, and prevent someone from achieving the wholeness and holiness that God wants. So, Jesus was helping this person to be able to become the person that God created him to be. It was by God’s grace that this was done. We know from Scripture that Jesus went around healing people of various infirmities. Now we see that Jesus had begun the process of purifying His bride.

Part of the purification process is the message of Jesus to “repent, and believe in the Gospel.” These acts of repentance and believing involve a change. The person that comes to believe in Jesus must first acknowledge and repent of their sins. This acknowledgment and repentance should lead to the Gospel message of avoiding sin and seeking holiness by actively seeking the help of Jesus. This change of lifestyle that we are asked to make is one that many people don’t want to make. Many of us are comfortable with our lives and don’t want to change. This is why the psalm for today is appropriate (Ps 95). “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” This is what happens when we don’t want to change; even if Jesus points out to us that some of our behavior is damaging to our souls. When we harden our hearts, we become deaf to the voice of Jesus. When we become deaf to the voice of Jesus we will remain in our sins, and we won’t become the pure bride that Jesus is hoping for.

This hardening of our hearts can lead to worse things. Some of us can become troubled by unclean spirits. Not that someone may be possessed, but someone can be bothered by an unclean spirit leading him/her into temptation. This can lead to chaos and division in someone’s life. It can definitely cause damage to the soul. Most people may not even realize that this has happened. I’m sure that the man that we heard about in the Gospel reading probably felt that way. He entered the synagogue to pray and probably didn’t realize that he had a problem.

Jesus is still purifying His bride today. He wants to rid us of anything that may cause damage to our souls. If we don’t harden our hearts; if we are attentive to His voice; we will cooperate with His grace in our purification. We will seek Jesus out with all our hearts. We will try to follow Him as faithfully as possible. We will work to cleanse ourselves by receiving the sacraments of reconciliation and the Eucharist as often as we can.

However, due to a lack of diligence some people may not be aware that there is a spiritual problem in their lives. This lack of diligence may be caused by the fact that we can become so busy in our daily lives that our spiritual life gets little attention. The things of this world can occupy our minds and fill our lives with many distracting things. Without realizing it many of us have filled our minds and hearts with things that are not of God. Jesus knows us very well. He knows what occupies our thoughts, and what is in our hearts. Jesus may look at us and see many of us that may have hardened our hearts in some way. It will take His intervention to get their attention so that He can bring healing to these persons.

Jesus wants to bring healing to all of us. He wants to purify us, so that His bride will be without stain. The time is now. We need to repent of anything in our lives that is causing damage to our souls. If anybody is unaware of any problem, then it is important to pray to the Holy Spirit for help to become aware of the problem. The Holy Spirit knows what needs to be done to rid us of any sin that may be causing damage in our lives. We have to be willing to change and follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit. If we don’t, then more damage may be done to our souls. Our hearts may become more hardened, and without realizing it, we may be more spiritually dead than alive. Jesus doesn’t want this to happen. He wants to prevent this. Jesus wants us to be fully alive with His Spirit, become the stainless bride that He is looking for, and enjoy the eternal communion of love that only this celestial Groom can offer to His bride.

Fr. Tim Ilgen