First 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.”
Second 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.
Gospel Cycle Cycle B
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.
It seems fairly clear now, some two thousand years after the birth of Christ that we still don’t listen very well to the word of God. Today’s first reading puts Moses before. Moses tells us that God will raise up prophets to instruct us and that we should listen to them. Throughout the whole of the Jewish Scriptures, the story is the same: we don’t listen very well if we listen at all.
In our Christian Scriptures, such as today’s Gospel reading, Jesus is listened too because He speaks something new, He heals someone and people are astounded. But it does not last. Yes, there is always a following for Jesus, a groop of people who want to listen to Hm. Many come because they want healing, but sometimes they seem to go away, even after being healed. Others come because they are hungry. Some of them also leave when they get food. At the end, there are very few who stay with Him to the Cross.
Are we, His followers of today, any different? Probably not! What should this tell us? The salvation is a gift of the Lord and not something that we earn by listening well and always doing His will. God wants to save us. Our part in salvation is to keep on trying, accepting our brokenness but asking for forgiveness. We should always trust in God’s Mercy.
As we have heard in today’s second reading, we hear a plea to give ourselves to God completely. The author of that letter thinks that it is easier to do it without getting married. That may be so but what really counts is listening to what God wants of us here and now. If we are called to be married, let us embrace that with joy and know that it is our way to salvation. If we are called to be single in the world, a consecrated religious or a priest, let us give thanks for that and strive to live that vocation well.
Neither of these ways of serving the Lord will free us from our sins. Only God does that. Both married and single must ask help in their lives and every day seek the Lord once more, trusting that He loves us. For all of this, let us give thanks to the Lord.