Our gospel today focuses on the power and authority of Jesus. He demonstrates that in the way He spoke and in the way He acted. Preaching in the synagogue in the city of Capernaum, the people were amazed at how He spoke with personal authority, unlike other teachers and prophets who came before Him.
The prophets always started off their messages with “Thus says the Lord” - it wasn’t them speaking. Rabbis of His time referred to prominent rabbis who came before them. According to rabbi so and so, and according to rabbi so and so, this is what you need to do. It wasn’t them speaking. It was all borrowed voices and borrowed authority. It was like writing essays entirely based on other people’s works without the writer’s voice appearing anywhere.
In came Jesus who told them that “In the past you heard it said…., but I tell you this….” He did not borrow any prophet’s authority, or rabbi’s authority. He spoke as the Son of God, and He spoke as God himself. Nobody had ever spoken like that before.
In the gospel we hear Him in the synagogue where there was a man who had an unclean spirit or was possessed by a demon. The demon recognized Jesus and cried out, “We know who You are! You are the Holy One of God. Have You come to destroy us?” He rebuked the demon, commanded it to come out of the man, and the demon obeyed Him. The demon recognized His power and authority.
As we become more sophisticated as societies, it is increasingly becoming difficult for us to believe in realities that exist in the spiritual realm. Angels and demons anyone? Please pass! Just a reminder that we Catholics profess in the Creed every Sunday that we believe in “things seen” and “things unseen.” Among the “things unseen” is God, the saints, the holy angels, and the fallen angels also known as demons.
We may not be possessed by demons in dramatic ways similar to what we have just read in our gospel, but we too, are people tormented in our own ways by little demons. We know people in our families who are possessed by the spirit of lying and deception; people struggling with the spirit of gossip. We know family members struggling with the spirit of pride, with the spirit of selfishness or narcissism. We have encountered people in our families fighting the demon of addiction. They have been in and out of rehab. We know people in our families struggling with different kinds of impulsive behavior.
It is these kinds of situations that alongside receiving professional help, we also need to bring to Jesus in prayer, and to the sacraments especially the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist.
- In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, Jesus rebukes our demons and silences our evil tendencies.
- In the Sacrament of the Eucharist, He heals, He transforms us, and He gives us new life.
Yes, Jesus has the power and authority to destroy the different kinds of demons that oppress us.
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