“I will raise up for them a prophet!” From today`s first reading.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today, we celebrate the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Readings for today’s Sunday are telling us about a great prophet, promised Messiah.
In the First Reading, we heard of God’s promise to Moses that He would raise up for us a prophet. This is only one of God’s many promises that were made and are found in the Old Testament. All these promises were fulfilled in New Testament in Jesus Christ. Five weeks ago we celebrated the arrival of the promised prophet in the incarnation of God through Jesus Christ. In a few months, we will celebrate the resurrection of the greatest of all prophets, the Lord Jesus.
St. Paul in his letter to Timothy tells us “There is one Mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all – this was attested at the right time.”
In the Gospel, we heard that Jesus entered the synagogue and taught in Capernaum. Those who heard Him were astounded at His teachings because He taught with authority, not as the scribes, and He had power over evil and Satan. In the presence of Jesus a man with an unclean spirit 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.” The evil spirit that possessed the man recognized Jesus as the Messiah. The evil spirit calls the name of Jesus twice, first as Jesus of Nazareth and then as the Holy One of God. The demons recognized Jesus as a Messiah as a true God. Jesus commanded the unclean spirit to be silent and to come out of the man. Once that happened, those who were present were amazed and asked one another, “What is this? A new teaching – with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” The people had never seen such great power, nor ever heard of it since the days of Moses.
Summarizing today’s Holy Readings, in Jesus, we have seen the fulfillment of God’s promise to send a prophet like Moses. Jesus spoke with authority. He was not like the scribes and Pharisees. He didn’t just speak the truth, He was the Truth Incarnate. Jesus gave orders to unclean spirits, and they obeyed him. It wasn’t the words that kicked the devil out; it was the person who spoke those words.
My dear brother and sisters Jesus is calling us today to speak with authority about Gospel, God’s love, his commandments. He called us to be His presence for others. We are called to destroy evil in our world and around us. We are called to live our vocations, place our faith, hope and trust in Jesus Christ the Son of God.