A New Teaching January 9

Tuesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

What is man that you are mindful of him? Hebrews 2:6

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.” Mark 1:27

Piety

God’s Grandeur

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.

It will flame out, like shining from shook foil,

It gathers to a greatness like the ooze of oil

Crushed. Why do men then now not reck His rod?

Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;

And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;

And bears man’s smudge, and shares man’s smell; the soil

Is bare now, nor can foot feel being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;

There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;

And though the last lights from the black west went,

Oh, morning at the brown brink eastwards springs—

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent

World broods with warm breast, and with, ah, bright wings.

By Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889)

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/010907.shtml

Who and what are we that God, in all greatness and grandeur, cares for us? Why is God mindful of us? Why would he send his Son to save us?

Because we are God’s creation – God’s children. God made us AND God made Jesus Christ. In this shared humanity, we call ourselves children of God and Jesus calls us friend and sister and brother.

Who is not proud of what you make or build? The accomplishments of your children and family. The musician playing a beautiful arrangement. The writer creating an informative or inspiring article. The photographer making images people admire. The housewife arranging flowers from the garden in the kitchen. The father fixing the car. The child with a good grade in a class or on homework.

Whatever we make, we like to display to the world because we are pleased with our accomplishments. So, too, only more so, is God pleased with us…most of the time.

From this common Source of Life, comes Jesus as both our brother and our leader. We follow Him in solidarity because he suffers like we do and faces death like we do. He who consecrates and those who are being consecrated all have one origin. Hebrews 2:11

By sharing human nature, Jesus, God-made-man, broke the power of the devil over death. Jesus the great high priest overcomes the sins of the people because he has gone through the same tests that we face. Because he himself was tested through what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested. (18)

The very first time Mark tells us that Jesus entered the synagogue, he taught in a “new” way, a manner at odds with the existing authorities. The people were “astonished.” Those who hear Jesus and witness his excommunicating the demon in the temple are amazed at his teaching and the greatness of God. Because he will face death, Jesus has the power over death and the demons that bring it.

Thus, Jesus and his teachings bring hope to the people – hope that God favors us enough to help us conquer the demons that plague our lives. That hope rides in on Jesus’ back as well as on the bright wings of the Holy Spirit and the sun rising in the East.

“[M]orning at the brown brink eastwards springs—

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent

World broods with warm breast, and with, ah, bright wings.”

Action

Our world is full of demons. Big demons and personal demons. Al-queda in Somalia. Cholesterol in our veins. Fire burning down houses and apartments. Accidents on Metro. Arguments over immigration, war, politics, and morality. The death penalty.

What demon would you like Jesus to help you “throw out” of your temple?