4TH SUNDAY HOMILY IN ORDINARY TIME – YEAR B

4TH SUNDAY HOMILY IN ORDINARY TIME – YEAR B

THEME: SPIRITUAL POLITICS

BY:  Fr Andrew Ekpenyong

1. Behind the Scenes. Last month, December 2023, before my students in Quantum Mechanics took their final Exam at Creighton University, the only ladies in the class, Jackie and Molly, approached me and said: “Just for fun, let us astonish the boys in the class on the last day. The plan is that as soon as the boys come into the class, you will start speaking German to us the girls, and we will respond with memorized German sentences, perhaps about Schrodinger Equation, Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, and so forth. We will shock the boys for a while.” I liked the idea, and we executed it. The gentlemen in my class were astonished. And there was laughter after we revealed that we staged it. The lesson here is that there was something behind the scenes. That was classroom politics. There is a lot of politics in all the Scripture readings today. And also, a lot of behind the scenes at the spiritual level. Hence, the title of this homily: “Spiritual Politics”. In the first reading (Dt 18:15-20), it is Moses and God behind the scenes, and then the people. Politics has to do with the acquisition, distribution and exercise of authority and power in the governance of people, for the common good. Sacred Scripture tells us: “… there is no authority except from God” (Rom 13:1-2; cf. 1 Pet 2:13-17.) And the Catechism of the Catholic Church adds: “If authority belongs to the order established by God, “the choice of the political regime and the appointment of rulers are left to the free decision of the citizens.” (CCC #1901). That is what we see in today’s 1st reading. The people themselves, asked God to declare His will to them, through prophets, and not directly. Moses reminded them: “This is exactly what you requested of the Lord, your God, at Horeb…”. And God accepted their request, and sent prophets to them, prophets who declared God’s will on various matters concerning their well-being.

ALSO RECOMMENDED: HOMILY 4TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME / YEAR B 

2. Authority and Power. In the 2nd Reading (1 Cor 7:32-35), St Paul declares God’s will over our freedom to choose to marry or to remain single. He gave advice on the challenges of both states in life. Both options are acceptable and both options give us challenging opportunities to do God’s will. In the Gospel reading (Mk 1:21-28) our Lord, Himself the embodiment of God’s will, not only declared God’s will but also stated this as His will, meaning, He is God. The people in the Synagogue felt the authority with which He spoke: “The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.” Mk 1:22. This was the same reaction after His Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:28-29). There He repeatedly said: “You have heard that it was said…but I say to you…”. He did not speak merely as a messenger, He was and remains also the message, the Word made Flesh. He is the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets (Matt 5:17). And our Lord backed up His Divine authority with power, as demonstrated in today’s Gospel reading. Like our starting story, His encounter with the possessed man, revealed a lot of “behind the scenes”. There was something behind the scenes, at the spiritual level, in that Synagogue that day, and it was not staged. It was real. In the Synagogue, the man possessed by an evil spirit spoke in ways that the immediate hearers did not grasp. There was more to it. It was spiritual politics unraveling. The unclean spirit stated: ‘Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God’. See, the evil spirit said something true about our Lord. And our Lord responded: “Quiet! Come out of him!”

3. Prophets Today. This exorcism by our Lord, reminds us that God is the source of all authority and power which He benevolently shares with creatures. That is the first article of the Creed: “I believe in God the Father almighty”. Rational creatures freely choose to either serve God’s purpose and find their happy fulfilment or they choose to serve themselves and end up in sadness while at the same time their disobedience still serves God’s purpose. The exorcism strengthened the faith of those in the Synagogue that day and today. This is spiritual politics. God turns even the devil’s abuse of power and evil to serve His salvific purpose. This is what it means to be Almighty. Dear Sisters and Brothers, we are called to listen to the true prophets of today, the entire Body of Christ, the Church, and prophetic individuals that God continues to use in transforming the world. Fortunately, you and I are among such individuals. We speak God’s will, first of all and most eloquently, in the manner of our lives. May the manner of our lives be prophetic. This enables God’s will to be done on earth, as it is in Heaven. And that is the goal of spiritual politics: the full manifestation of God’s Kingdom and the salvation of souls. Amen.

FOR SIMILAR HOMILY, CLICK HERE >>>