4th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B - 28/1/2018 - Gospel: Mk 1:21-28
Life is a mystery
We all have life and enjoy living simply because life is a mystery. When things go our way we enjoy life and think that life is real and simple and down to earth. When life is facing with pain and sickness and failures life is a mystery. It is so mysterious that we don't understand ourselves. We can't understand and explain things that most concern us. Questions like who am I and what we live for or what is the purpose of life on earth and whether there is life after death are questions that have many answers. Fairy tales were created to explain what the minds could not comprehend. Some welcome the belief that there is another life after the earthly ended; others believe about nothingness. Believe it or not we all have something in common and that is to respect our human body and commemoration of the deaths on their anniversary. Life is both fragile and tough. Our mind can travel faster than the speed of light because with just a simple blink of an eye we can recall what we have seen years ago at a distance of thousands of miles away. Our feelings can change from an unhappy mood to a happy mood within a fraction of a second. A single word can make your heart sink and also a single word can make us smile. Both happiness and sadness we know but what makes us truly happy is debatable. We can't turn back the clock to fix what went wrong yesterday. It is thing of the pass and we are powerless to change but things of the pass are foundation of our future. The answer for the purpose of life is varied from person to person. Some follow their own instinct and hope that things turn out alright. Others look to God for guidance and comforts and follow God's will.
Both the Scribes and Jesus taught to the people but Jesus had made tremendous impression on the people while the Scribes made little progress. Jesus taught them with authority and made life easier to bear while the Scribes placed burden on the people and made life that was a heavy burden. Our politicians have authority because people vote for them and they have authority to govern the people. The authority of the democracy political system is given by the people, confer by the people through voting and there is a term applied and the people can vote them out. Jesus, on the other hand, has authority which is not given by the people but recognized by the people. The authority Jesus has which is eternity and it comes from himself, from God and the public has no power to confer or to take it away. What they can do is to accept it with joy or they can make personal choice but no one has the power to take away the authority Jesus has. Children accept authority of their parent because by birth they have responsibility to look after their own children and by love they have for their children. Similarly Jesus loves us as parents love their children. His love is eternal and unconditional. His love is a sacrificial and unreserved love. Followers of Jesus enjoy his authority simply because his love for them is true and genuine. His teaching is real and relevant to their daily lives and what he has to offer is permanent and that is what the world don't have.
Both the Scribes and Jesus taught to the people but Jesus had made tremendous impression on the people while the Scribes made little progress. Jesus taught them with authority and made life easier to bear while the Scribes placed burden on the people and made life that was a heavy burden. Our politicians have authority because people vote for them and they have authority to govern the people. The authority of the democracy political system is given by the people, confer by the people through voting and there is a term applied and the people can vote them out. Jesus, on the other hand, has authority which is not given by the people but recognized by the people. The authority Jesus has which is eternity and it comes from himself, from God and the public has no power to confer or to take it away. What they can do is to accept it with joy or they can make personal choice but no one has the power to take away the authority Jesus has. Children accept authority of their parent because by birth they have responsibility to look after their own children and by love they have for their children. Similarly Jesus loves us as parents love their children. His love is eternal and unconditional. His love is a sacrificial and unreserved love. Followers of Jesus enjoy his authority simply because his love for them is true and genuine. His teaching is real and relevant to their daily lives and what he has to offer is permanent and that is what the world don't have.
Written by Fr Vũđình Tường
St Francis Xavier Catholic Parish
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane Australia
St Francis Xavier Catholic Parish
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane Australia