There is a lot going on in today’s Gospel reading, especially in the background. At the beginning of his public ministry, Jesus goes to the synagogue at Capernaum which was a city located at a crossroads and was a social, cultural, and economic center. The synagogue was famous for being large and beautiful. There was probably a larger percentage of formally educated and wealthy people there.
Jesus appears on the scene as another itinerant rabbi. Traditionally the rabbis at that time had to justify their teachings by appealing to tradition by naming their teachers and the teachers’ teachers thereby finally resting on the tradition and authority of Moses. A specific rabbi’s preaching style or doctrine might seem boring or obscure or repetitive or exaggerated, but he could always justify his teachings on tradition and authority, Moses. Overall, nothing new to hear and no charismatic preachers.
Jesus’ teachings were just the opposite. With Jesus they heard a new message based on a new authority, his own authority and tradition. Mark tells us that this produced astonishment in the people. Jesus preached based on his personal experience of being part of the Holy Trinity. He did not repeat what he had been told by his teacher and his teacher’s teacher. Jesus shared his own personal faith experience.
I am a public-school kid – all through grade school and high school. We had to go to catechism classes every Wednesday afternoon at the parish. The astonishment in the Gospel today is the is the difference between listening to catechisms classes with a following written test and seeing your grandmother’s lifestyle and hearing the conviction in her own faith story. Rabbis and catechism classes are theoretical while Jesus has the power of personal experience and example like a grandparent.
Then to prove the authority of his preaching, Jesus expels a spirit from a man. None of Jesus’ healings are done to make himself important or impressive – this is not a circus or magic show. Rather they show his listeners who he is and the authority he has as Savior.
As a Church we are called to live and preach with the new, astonishing authority that Jesus showed very early in his public ministry – astonishing personal, lived and real. Important as they are, scolding repeating tradition, doctrine and catechesis had little effect on the people of Jesus’ time. It has even less effect on young adults and folks of our generation. Each one of us, each Catholic family and all of us together as a local faith community (parish) can be astonishing to other in our culture by the way we live our faith. When was the last time you astonished someone with your faith in action?
The people were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority.
Image: https://catholicjules.net/2018/01/09/on-todays-gospel-1576/