FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, JANUARY 31, 2021

JESUS COMMANDS OUR DEMONS—BE QUIET!

Greeting

Jesus spoke to people the Good News of healing and life. He speaks this same Good News to us here in this assembly. May his words stir our hearts and bring us healing and life. May the Lord Jesus be always with you. R/ And with your spirit.

Introduction

Here Is a Teaching That Is New

When priests or teachers speak to you about our faith as if they are reciting a lesson learned by heart, you will probably pay little attention. But when you feel personally addressed, if they speak from their own experience that shows that they deeply believe in what they say, you are eager to listen. That is the way Jesus speaks to us today. He addresses each of us with the force of his own life behind his words. We open our ears and hearts to him.

Penitential Act

Let us ask the Lord to forgive us for having paid too little attention when he spoke his word to us.

(pause)

Lord Jesus, you speak to us. Speak to our hearts and let your word liberate us: Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.

Jesus Christ, you speak to us. Let your words make a deep impression on us and give us the courage to change: Christ, have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.

Lord Jesus, you speak to us. Let your word move us to become more and more like you. Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.

Have mercy on us, Lord, and drive out from us the evil of sin. Fill us with your light and strength and lead us to everlasting life. R/ Amen.

Opening Prayer

Let us pray that the Word of God may keep resounding in the world (pause)

God our Father, you have spoken to us in our brother, your Son Jesus Christ, your Word that endures for all ages. He lived as he spoke, and so his message became flesh and blood and was reliable. Give us in our day men and women of vision and integrity who speak in your name with authority and who can translate this message for us in a language we can understand. Let their voices give direction to our lives and stir us up to bear witness to your kingdom of community and serving love. We ask this through Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.

First Reading: The True Prophet Is God’s Voice

To God’s people prophets were – and still are – the mouthpiece of God. They interpret his will with authority and direct the people toward God’s future.

1 Reading: Deuteronomy 18:15-20

Moses spoke to all the people, saying: “A prophet like me will the LORD, your God, raise up for you from among your own kin; to him you shall listen. This is exactly what you requested of the LORD, your God, at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let us not again hear the voice of the LORD, our God, nor see this great fire any more, lest we die.’ And the LORD said to me, ‘This was well said. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kin, and will put my words into his mouth; he shall tell them all that I command him. Whoever will not listen to my words which he speaks in my name, I myself will make him answer for it. But if a prophet presumes to speak in my name an oracle that I have not commanded him to speak, or speaks in the name of other gods, he shall die.'”

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 7-9

R. (8) If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD; let us acclaim the rock of our salvation. Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us joyfully sing psalms to him. R.

Come, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the LORD who made us. For he is our God, and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides. R.

Oh, that today you would hear his voice: “Harden not your hearts as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the desert, Where your fathers tempted me; they tested me though they had seen my works.” R.

Second Reading: Free for the Lord

All are called to holiness; (Paul stresses the advantages of the charism of celibacy) those who are not married are free to devote themselves to the Lord and his affairs.

2 Reading: 1 Corinthians 7:32-35

Brothers and sisters: I should like you to be free of anxieties. An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. But a married man is anxious about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and he is divided. An unmarried woman or a virgin is anxious about the things of the Lord, so that she may be holy in both body and spirit. A married woman, on the other hand, is anxious about the things of the world, how she may please her husband. I am telling you this for your own benefit, not to impose a restraint upon you, but for the sake of propriety and adherence to the Lord without distraction.

Alleluia Matthew 4:16

Alleluia, alleluia. The people who sit in darkness have seen a great light; on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death, light has arisen. R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel: Jesus Taught with Authority

Jesus could teach with authority like no one else, for he was the living Word of God, God’s own Son. By the power of his word alone he overcame the power of evil.

Gospel: Mark 1:21-28

Then they came to Capernaum, and on the sabbath Jesus 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.

Commentary:

When do words have authority? Not when they only reflect or repeat other words, not when they are merely clever and evasive, not when they only serve to parry the true realities of our life. They have authority only when they well up from the truth. That truth comes from the Son of God. He is the Truth himself. From there draws our authority over and above all things. We live in a world where people say many (empty) things, and most likely, half-truths (deceptive). A man bought a parrot and became very attached to it. So attached did he become that he was deeply worried day and night that the cat might kill it. Therefore he set out to teach the parrot what to do. He taught him to say, “Fly away when the cat comes!” Day and night the parrot would repeat the phrase, “Fly away when the cat comes!” The man was greatly reassured. Then one day that cat came. The parrot, tightly gripping his perch, repeated (more loudly this time), “Fly away when the cat comes!” The cat approached and killed the parrot, and ate it. “It is not those who say, ‘Lord, Lord’ who will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Looking, therefore at today’s Gospel, we recall that, sick people feel very much how they are handicapped by their illness. There are things they want to do but can’t; it is as if they are not fully human. We see this most strongly in the mentally handicapped. Today we see Jesus at work with his healing power. Not that he heals everyone who is sick, but he shows that God wants people to be whole and wholesome – that is what “healing” means. He wants us to become like him, that is, completely human, good and whole persons, not only physically but in every way. For it is then that we can fully honour God as his image. Let us ask Jesus in this Eucharist to make us whole and wholesome.

May the tumult of your life be QUIET—In Jesus name.

Intercessions

In these confusing times let us pray to our reliable God for men and women who can speak his word to us with the assurance and authority of faith. Let us say: