Word to the Wise
Sunday, February 1, 2009 - Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
[Deuteronomy 18:15-20; 1 Corinthians 7:32-35; Mark 1:21-28]I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kin and will put my words into his mouth. He shall tell them all that I command him.
One of the ironies of the Gospel of Mark is that the evil spirits can recognize Jesus but the people standing around cannot. Some of this is intentional because the Gospel of Mark is a story about a failure to understand until Jesus has died and risen. However, some of it is human nature. If we don't expect to see something, we may not see it even if it's standing right in front of us. Our expectations don't allow us to "see" it. The Book of Deuteronomy today speaks of a prophet from among our kin! That may be the hardest prophet of all to accept! This may be the reason it is so hard to love our neighbor sometimes. We just can't "see" Jesus in them because we don't expect to see Jesus in them. This could be even more difficult if it is someone who is kin to us! Perhaps the gospel today alerts us to pay attention to what our expectations are for "seeing" Jesus and then we may begin to look for him! It would be a shame if only evil spirits in our age can do that! AMEN
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