(1 Samuel 1:9-20, 1 Samuel 2:2,4-5,6-8, Mark 1:21-28)
God just sent you a pop quiz. Take out your pen and paper. What were the three Bible readings given out at Mass this past Sunday, and write down one idea you remember from the homily. You get 25% for each correct answer. Be honest, now. What is your score?
If we flunked this quiz, we need a major wake up call. We don’t value God’s Word enough and don’t realize it is lifeline for us.
St. Paul wrote: “Receive the word of God, not as the word of men, but as it truly is, the word of God” (1 Thessalonians 2:13).
Part of our problem is that we listen to the word of God as though it is the word of a man or woman. After all human beings are the ones who proclaim the Word to us each Sunday morning. We hear people talking all day long, either in person or through the TV, and we become immune to words. This can be tragic if we also become immune to God’s word.
Today’s gospel reading alerts us to the power of a word spoken by God (see Mark1:21-28).
We read that “Jesus came to Capernaum…entered the synagogue and taught. The people were astonished at his teaching.” When is the last time we were astonished when we heard someone delivering God’s word to us? The same Jesus who spoke at Capernaum speaks to us today. It is the same living word, and it has the same power to make us astonished.
The people commented that Jesus taught “as one having authority and not as the scribes.” How interesting. The scribes were learned men; they knew the Scriptures and were authorized by the synagogue to teach. Yet people fell asleep when the scribes taught. What was it like to hear someone teach “with authority?” Jesus was authorized to speak the “now” Word of God, and he did so effectively.
A man with an unclean spirit disturbed Jesus’ lesson. “Jesus rebuked him and said, ‘Quiet! Come out of him!” The evil spirit left immediately and “all were amazed.” God’s spoken word had the power to set people free from the grip of evil spirits. Again, people were astonished.
We have no trouble in accepting the fact that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, had power and authority in his words, but does anyone else?
Let’s check out today’s first reading (1 Samuel 1:9-10) and listen to the words Eli the priest spoke to Hannah. “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.” Hannah was drunk with grief over the fact that she could not bear children. Eli thought she had been drinking too much liquor until she explained the real reason for her behavior. Immediately after Eli spoke these words, Hannah went back home and “no longer appeared downcast.” Within a year she bore a son.
Now if Eli the Old Testament priest could speak a word that lifted someone out of depression and allowed her to get pregnant, what about New Testament priests? And what about us who have been empowered, also, by the Holy Spirit?
We have a long way to go in doing what St. Paul instructed: receiving the word of God as truly coming from God and not from men.
What do you think would happen if next Sunday every Christian in the world got 100% on the Bible quiz I presented at the start of this article? What would happen in our lives if we learned to receive the Word of God with faith and absorbed all its power? What’s keeping this from happening? Why aren’t we being astonished?
“He raises up the needy…to seat them with nobles and make a glorious throne their heritage” (1 Samuel 2:8).
