4th SUNDAY OF THE YEAR (B)

On the sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and taught.

Mk 1:21-28

EXPLANATION OF THE GOSPEL

Then they came to Capernaum.

It is located on the northern shore of lake Galilee. It is the home of Peter, An-drew, James and John and Matthew, the tax collector.

Jesus made it his headquarter. “When he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea” (Mt 4:12).

Jesus expressed great disappointment with the people of Capernaum: “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented, sit-ting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. And as for you, Capernaum, 'Will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the netherworld.'" (Lk 10: 13-15).

The site is a ruin today. You can find there a Catholic church built over the ruins of the house of St. Peter.

On the sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and taught.

The day of worship for the Jews is Saturday. No sacrifice was offered in the synagogue because only in the Temple in Jerusalem can sacrifice be offered.

The worship at the synagogue consisted of singing, reading of scriptures and teaching.
Since Jesus had become a famous rabbi or teacher, it was not unusual for the leader of the synagogue to invite Jesus to teach when he was present.

The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.

When the scribes taught, they would quote famous rabbis to support their teaching. Jesus did not do that. He taught on the strength of his own authority. “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, 'You shall not kill; and who-ever kills will be liable to judgment.' But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, 'Raqa,' will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable to fiery Gehenna” (Mt 5:21-22).

His teaching was accompanied by works of power. Thus, the reaction of the people: "What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the un-clean spirits and they obey him."

I know who you are—the Holy One of God!"

This is not to be interpreted as a confession of faith in Jesus Christ. It was really an attempt of the unclean spirit to ward off the power of Jesus. It was an ancient belief that by knowing the name of an opponent spirit you gain mastery over that spirit. That was why when Jacob asked the name of the angel with whom he wrestled the whole night, the angel refused to tell him his name.

Jesus rebuked him and said, "Quiet! Come out of him!" The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him.

The New American Bible translates the command of Jesus as “Quiet! “ Liter-ally, Jesus was commanding the unclean spirit to “Be muzzled!” Muzzle is defined as a fastening or covering for the mouth of an animal used to prevent eating or biting” The picture that I get here is that Jesus is not merely giving a command to the unclean spirit not to speak. He was muzzling the unclean spirit so that even if the unclean spirit wanted to say something, he would not be able to do so.

Basing themselves on the description of convulsion, some are saying that Je-sus healed the man of epilepsy.

TEACHING

What do we mean by teaching? Who is a teacher?

Once there was an old lady who slowly made her way to the counter to pay for her groceries. She had been retired for some time and had not been feeling well lately. Ahead of her was a young man with long hair, tattoos and pierced ears and lips. The old teacher thought to herself, “What has become of our youth!” When the young man saw her, he politely invited her to go ahead of him.

“Why thank you, young man,” the teacher said in surprise. “Who taught you that?”

“Why you, Mrs. Richards. In second grade. I’m Bob, your student of long ago.”

By teaching we don’t mean teaching a subject but teaching something that has to do with life. A teacher is one who teaches something about life.

Parents

Parents are the first teachers of their children. They teach their children about life. For example, it is you parents who teach your children how to be a husband or a wife, how to be a father or a mother. It is you who teach your children how to raise a family or solve a problem.

Parents also pass on to their children lessons learned from life. These lessons from life are called wisdom. A writer told this story from his childhood. He was with his dad on a train. He adored his dad and thought of him as the wisest man on earth. To his surprise, he saw his dad talking to one of the train engineers. In those days, trains ran on coal and the train engineer was dirty all over with soot. When father and son returned to their seat, he asked his dad why he talked to that man. And his dad told him, “You can always learn something new from anybody.” That was a piece of wisdom father passed on to his son.

Life

All of us still go to school, even if we have already graduated many years ago. This school that all of us still go to is called the school of life. Unless we learn at this school, we are bound to lead unhappy and unproductive lives.

Ophrah shares one of the things she learned in the school of life. She says that there are no failures; there are no mistakes; there are only learning opportunities.

A philosopher learned how to deal with suffering. He says: “First, accept the fact that suffering is part of life. There is no way you can escape suffering. And second, focus on the positive.”

An executive of SM commenting on OFWs returning from Taiwan because of retrenchment said that what they need to do now is to learn another set of skills that will either make them employable or enable them to start a business of their own.

There is another lesson that life can teach us. Someone said: “Forewarned. Forearmed.” That is, if you don’t want the future to catch you flat-footed, you have to prepare for it. For example, if you get sick, are you ready for it? In five years time, your eldest will enter college, are you ready for it?

We can not always predict the future. But there are things that has a high probability of happening. Are we prepared?

Jesus

Jesus was called rabbi. In other words, Jesus was called a teacher. In today’s gospel, we find him teaching in the synagogue. Jesus does not do that anymore. But how can we attend the school of Jesus. How do we get to be taught by him?

1. Buy a bible with footnotes. The New American Bible or The New Jerusa-lem Bible. Read the bible regularly. Study the footnotes.
2. Listen to the readings and homily at Mass.
3. Radio and TV have programs about the Sunday Liturgy. Watch or listen to those programs. (For the Philippines, there is Bisperas sa Veritas every Saturday afternoon on Radio Veritas. For Italy, there is the program of Fr. Cantalamesa on RAI Uno.)
4. You can download the weekly reflection on the reading of the day on your mp3 player. You can find it at Pray as you go (http://www.pray-as-you-go.org/).

Teaching and learning are two sides of the same coin. We need to find a good teacher. But we need to be eager students as well, if we want to get anything from any good teacher. Jesus is there. Life is there. We only need to pay attention to them.