Mirror Looking

"Then they came to Capernaum, and on the Sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and taught.  The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.

In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit; he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?  Have you come to destroy us?  I know who you are—the Holy One of God!"

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

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."  His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee." (Mark 1:21-28).

Today’s Gospel reading reminds us that “unclean spirits” reside in all of us.   These are the spirits that make us unkind and even cruel.    These are the spirits that promote addiction to all sorts of crippling behavior that make us “unclean” and guilty of hurting others and ourselves. 

If only we could hear Jesus rebuke those spirits so they would come out of us with loud cries.   We should open our ears and listen.  His voice is everywhere and always.   That’s why he is our savior to whom we turn in good times and in bad.  

He quiets the din within us provided we hear him.   As stated by James in his first letter (1:23-24), “A man who listens to God’s word but does not put it into practice is like a man who looks into a mirror at the face he was born with: he looks at himself, then goes off and promptly forgets what he looked like.”

Let’s keep looking into our mirrors so as not to forget.   When we do, we’ll hear Jesus and those loud cries.

Deacon David Pierce