Liturgy of the Sunday

Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Remembrance of Modesta, a homeless woman refused medical assistance because she was dirty and was left to die in the Termini train station in Rome in 1983. Along with her we remember all those without a home and succour who have died.

First Reading

Deuteronomy 18,15-20

Yahweh your God will raise up a prophet like me; you will listen to him. This is exactly what you asked Yahweh your God to do -- at Horeb, on the day of the Assembly, when you said, "Never let me hear the voice of Yahweh my God or see this great fire again, or I shall die." Then Yahweh said to me, "What they have said is well said. From their own brothers I shall raise up a prophet like yourself; I shall put my words into his mouth and he will tell them everything I command him. Anyone who refuses to listen to my words, spoken by him in my name, will have to render an account to me. But the prophet who presumes to say something in my name which I have not commanded him to say, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die."

Psalmody

Psalm 94

Antiphon

Come, let us sing with joy to the Lord.

Come, ring out our joy to the Lord;
hail the rock who saves us.

Let us come before him, giving thanks,
with songs let us hail the Lord.

A mighty God is the Lord,
a great king above all gods.

In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his.

To him belongs the sea, for he made it
and the dry land shaped by his hands.

Come in; let us bow and bend low;
let us kneel before the God who made us

for he is our God and we
the people who belong to his pasture,
the flock that is led by his hand.

O that today you would listen to his voice!
'Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as on that day at Massah in the desert

when your fathers put me to the test;
when they tried me, though they saw my work.

For forty years I was wearied of these people
and I said : "Their hearts are astray,
these people do not know my ways."

Then I took an oath in my anger:
'Never shall they enter my rest.'"

Second Reading

1 Corinthians 7,32-35

I should like you to have your minds free from all worry. The unmarried man gives his mind to the Lord's affairs and to how he can please the Lord; but the man who is married gives his mind to the affairs of this world and to how he can please his wife, and he is divided in mind. So, too, the unmarried woman, and the virgin, gives her mind to the Lord's affairs and to being holy in body and spirit; but the married woman gives her mind to the affairs of this world and to how she can please her husband. I am saying this only to help you, not to put a bridle on you, but so that everything is as it should be, and you are able to give your undivided attention to the Lord.

Reading of the Gospel

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Yesterday I was buried with Christ,
today I rise with you who are risen.
With you I was crucified;
remember me, Lord, in your kingdom.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Mark 1,21-28

They went as far as Capernaum, and at once on the Sabbath he went into the synagogue and began to teach. And his teaching made a deep impression on them because, unlike the scribes, he taught them with authority. And at once in their synagogue there was a man with an unclean spirit, and he shouted, 'What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God.' But Jesus rebuked it saying, 'Be quiet! Come out of him!' And the unclean spirit threw the man into convulsions and with a loud cry went out of him. The people were so astonished that they started asking one another what it all meant, saying, 'Here is a teaching that is new, and with authority behind it: he gives orders even to unclean spirits and they obey him.' And his reputation at once spread everywhere, through all the surrounding Galilean countryside.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Yesterday I was buried with Christ,
today I rise with you who are risen.
With you I was crucified;
remember me, Lord, in your kingdom.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Homily

Jesus left the desert of Judah and, returning to Galilee, choses Capernaum as his habitual residence. The evangelist Mark underlines the authority with which Jesus spoke and the consequences that derived from it: all those present in the synagogue "were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." One could not be indifferent to that new teaching. Listeners were as if forced to a choice: to follow Jesus and his dream, or to lock in their own small world. The preaching of the scribes, whose words were full of rules and precepts, did not come into the heart and left people at the mercy of themselves. Today we live in a similar situation. Our cities are immersed in a deep crisis of values ??and behaviours. What seems to prevail everywhere is an exasperated individualism that leads to lock-in and worry only for themselves. Everyone seems to have his own god, her temple, his scribe, her preacher, to the point that we can speak of polytheistic cities. But in the end, there is only one "god", one's "I". And there are some who speak of the new worship, "egolatry", the worship of one's "self", on whose altar everything, even the dearest ones, is sacrificed. But when you are focused only on yourself, you become prey to innumerable "evil spirits" that in contemporary cities are multiplying unceasingly.
These spirits, which continue to make the lives of our cities bitter, cannot bear to be disturbed in their domination. And they cry out against the preaching of the Gospel: "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?" Indeed, there is an opposition to the Gospel preaching so that it does not disturb that concentration on oneself that divides and poisons the lives of our cities. But the Gospel is decisive in saving men and women from the slavery of a life full of fears and violence. "Be silent! Come out of them." There is a need for Christian communities and disciples to get out of themselves and their customs, including pastoral ones, and embark in a new mission of chasing away the many spirits that subdue many people in our cities. For instead, we need a new culture, that of mercy, acceptance, meeting, and mutual help, to grow. Pope Francis never ceases to remember it to all the disciples. Indeed, it is urgent that the entire Church, every believer, and the entire ecclesial community rediscover the courage to re-propose the Gospel, "sine glossa" without additions, as Francis of Assisi said. It is only this authority that "commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him."