Readings (Year B)

Deuteronomy 18:15-20
Psalms 95:1-2, 6-7, 7-9
1 Corinthians 7:32-35
Mark 1:21-28

Reflection: Like father, like son

I left home when I was fourteen to go to a high school seminary. I have spent most of my life living and working among the priests and brothers of my religious community, the Claretian Missionaries. Early on, one of my sisters told me that this experience changed me and made me act like the old priests who used to run our parish. Still, every once in a while, when I would visit home, I would say something or do something that made my mom exclaim, sometimes in frustration, “Junior, you are just like your father!” Apparently, despite many years away from home, I still have some of my dad in me.

In today’s Gospel, one could say that Jesus is “a chip off the old block.” His humanity does not take away from his sameness—his oneness—with God the Father. 

Jesus heals a man possessed by an evil spirit. He does this just by saying, “Come out of him!” There are no rituals, no magical gestures, no incantations. Like his Father, his word is enough; it is creative and healing. All he has to do is speak and it happens. To say it is to make it happen. Jesus truly is the “Holy One of God.”

The curious thing is that in this gospel the one who recognizes this is not one of the apostles or disciples. It is an evil spirit who is asking to be left alone. Speaking through the possessed man, he says with confidence and fear, I know who you are: “Have you come to destroy us?”

Mark’s Gospel often has the most unlikely people recognizing the true identity of Jesus, in contrast to the Scribes and Pharisees, and even his own disciples. One example is the Roman soldier at the crucifixion of Jesus, who exclaims, “Truly this man was God’s son.” I guess he saw the resemblance!

Mark’s Gospel reminds us that Jesus is the Word of God. Like his Father, he sees all of creation as good but in need of healing. His mission is to restore and bring back to health all those who find themselves surrounded by evil, to bring salvation to those who have lost their way with words of compassion and healing. 

In the first reading from the book of Deuteronomy, Moses promises the people that God will send them a prophet, like himself, who will speak God’s word. Jesus is the fulfillment of that promise. His miracles are God’s words in action. He is God’s word in the flesh. Even those outside of the faith community, even “evil spirits,” recognize Jesus as the “Holy One of God.” Today we could say, “Like father, like son.”

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This week let us also speak God’s word. In our conversations with others and in the good works that we do, let people see in us what others saw in Jesus.  

My mom said I was just like my father. As I have gotten older, I wish I were more like him in his faith and dedication to the family. I understand now a little better what Jesus meant when he said, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Or in the words of my dad, “Son, if you are mine, then you better look like me!”

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