After all the celebrations of the Advent and Christmas seasons, we begin again what the Church calls “Ordinary Time”, a time of no special feasts, no special season.
The folks gathered in the synagogue on the sabbath at Capernaum were like us. They expected the ordinary sabbath day prayers, readings from the Old Testament, and teachings. We tend to live our lives as if we were abandoned children with very low expectations of life. Even our life with God is full of complaints and tears. Look at how Hannah prayed to God in today’s first reading. We can see this feeling in the lyrics from the well-known Afro-American spiritual song says: “Sometimes I feel like a motherless child a long way from home” or in Peruvian author Ciro Algeria’s book title: “The World is Wide and Distant”. That is the world we build by ourselves separate from God.
But unexpectedly, Jesus breaks into the routine of the ordinary daily lives of the people in the synagogue with something new: a new teaching, a new authority, and marvelous signs of healing. Jesus is God in person breaking into our lives with a new Word, a new message, a new way of life, and a new healing relationship. Apparently, the old rabbis had little authority – probably the same old boring message – that had little effect on the lives of the people. The joy of the birth of the Prince of Peace from the Christmas season continues through the year, through our whole lives. This new relationship produces a new experience of peace and joy. A life based on complaints, sadness, and tears leaves us tied to the demons of abandonment and sickness. In the same way a life of ridged rules, guilt, and punishment leaves us separated from God and in the clutches of demons and sickness. In today’s Gospel, Jesus breaks that system by entering the lives of all those people bringing God’s peace and healing in a direct relationship.
For us today it is important to allow ourselves to be amazed each day and to live in joy. The ordinary life of the folks in the synagogue was sad and boring. The ordinary life of a true Christian is joy. Joy because Jesus comes looking for us, Jesus shares our daily lives, and Jesus offers us forgiveness and peace.
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.”
Image: https://sveto-pismo.net/2017/04/29/6-ozdravljenje-opsjednutoga-u-sinagogi-mk-121-28/