FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
FEBRUARY 1, 2015
In
the first sentence of his Gospel, Saint Mark lets us in on a great truth: Jesus is God’s Son! He writes the rest of his Gospel showing us
how people respond when Jesus reveals that truth to them. Today, Jesus enters a sacred space (the
synagogue) on a sacred day (the Sabbath) and teaches. We are not told what he teaches, but how he
teaches. Jesus teaches as one having
authority. There is no need for him to
quote experts of the law and prophets, as the scribes would teach. He is the prophet promised from the time of
Moses.
However,
the unclean spirit knows exactly who he is – the Holy One of God. The evil spirit knows his mission – he will
destroy the power of evil. In fact, the
means of his destroying the power of evil is established already in this early
part of Mark’s Gospel. Jesus has invaded
the sacred space of the scribes. He has
identified himself as Lord of the Sabbath.
Eventually, those who claim these sacred spaces as their own will have
Jesus executed. His death on the cross
will be the final defeat of the power of sin and evil. It will be at the side of the cross that the
Roman soldier will say the same thing we already know: Truly this is the Son of God!
It is
significant that the mission of Jesus begins to take shape in a synagogue. In the ancient world, synagogues were places
where people worshipped and were taught.
These two realities are exactly what we are addressing in our capital
campaign, “Behold, I Make All Things New.”
We need a bigger beautiful church for worship. We need more space in our facilities for
teaching. Our physical buildings (our
synagogue) provide opportunities for people to encounter Jesus Christ and come
to know him as God’s Only Begotten Son.
In the course of the year in which we have been running our campaign, we
have raised 11.7 million dollars in gifts and pledges. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I thank God for what he is doing through you
to ensure that our “synagogue” will provide worship to God and service through the
parish community for many years. Be sure
to join us after Mass for the second annual “We are Saint Pius” celebration in
the auxiliary gym. What has happened is
nothing short of remarkable.
As much as
we need to express gratitude and celebrate, we cannot rest on our laurels. We are involved in a marathon, not a
sprint. As we prepare for Bishop Rhoades
to preside over our ground breaking for the new church on April 19, we cannot
forget our educational needs. We cannot
forget what remains to be funded after this first phase is completed in two
years. We need adequate space for
Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. We need
a multipurpose room for a school cafeteria, and youth ministry, and after
school care. With those needs taken care
of, we can use the gyms for athletic events, and grade school students won’t be
practicing after they should be in bed.
We also need more bathrooms, classrooms, and space for all day
preschool.
When Saint
Paul wrote this passage to the Corinthians, he was responding to a question
they had asked of him. In the midst of a
pagan culture that regarded the body simply as a container for the soul, most
members of Corinth did what they wanted with their bodies. Saint Paul responds to the question asked by
the Christian community from the perspective of the second coming of Jesus
Christ. He urges believers not to have
divided loyalties. To those who are
unmarried, he encourages them to focus on the Lord. To those who are married, he affirms the sacred
bond of marriage and the mutual love given to each other. He urges the community to be a beacon in a
darkened and confused world. That is our
task. We can continue to be a beacon of
hope in a darkened world. We will worship
the Lord in a beautiful church and learn the ways of the Gospel in a more
adequate Education Center. As living
stones, we too can be a beacon of hope, celebrating the victory of Christ over
evil, and living that mystery for years to come.
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