Tuesday January 10, 2006 (Audio) Homily by Fr. Robert Altier First Week in Ordinary Time
Reading (1 Samuel 1:9-20) Gospel (St. Mark 1:21-28)
In the Gospel reading today, as we hear this story about Our Lord
casting out the demon in the synagogue, the people are amazed because He teaches
with authority and they wonder what this is. But isn’t it interesting that the
demon had already spoken and acknowledged Who Jesus was, but the people did not
pick up on it at all. He says, “I know who you are, the Holy One of God,” and
the people completely missed it. They were amazed at the authority He had, they
were amazed that the demon was obedient to Him, but they completely missed the
point of Who Jesus was.
Now this took place, as we are told, in Capernaum. That is where the
vast majority of the miracles of Our Lord were worked, and we recall that Our
Lord later on would actually say of Capernaum, along with a couple of other
towns (Corazin and Bethsaida), that if the works that had been worked in them
had been worked in Sodom and Gomorrah, or in Tyre and Sidon, they would have
been converted and they would have been doing penance in sackcloth. But these
people watched what the Lord had done, they had witnessed it, and they refused
to believe. They were just amazed and astonished, but they refused to go beyond
that.
If we look also, then, at the situation for ourselves, we can say,
“Well, we recognize Who Jesus is. He is the Son of God; He has all authority.”
And we come to Him in prayer, but we seem to forget the same point. We do not
believe, somehow, that He is going to answer our prayers. We do not trust that
He is going to do what He has promised to do. Consequently, we come to prayer
and we think that we have to do everything all by ourselves. Here is the One
that even the people in the synagogue recognized had authority, and even the
unclean spirits would obey Him, yet isn’t it interesting that we who call
ourselves Catholic do not obey, that we are not amazed by His authority, that
we do not even believe in it half the time. It is not, again, that we do not
believe in it objectively. We will all acknowledge that, of course, He is God
and He can do anything He wants. Then we turn right around and say, “But He
won’t do this,” which is all just simply a matter of saying, “Subjectively, I really
don’t believe. Objectively, I know He can do whatever He wants, but
subjectively I don’t believe it for a minute.” That is not exactly very deep
faith. We have to have confidence in the Lord.
We hear about Hannah in the first reading, coming before the Lord and
pouring out her heart. When she is done, she walks away, and we are told that
she no longer appeared downcast. She gave everything to the Lord, and then she
just trusted that God would take care of things. So she no longer went around
moping and feeling depressed and feeling sorry for herself because she trusted
in the Lord. That is the kind of confidence we have to have, and the reason why
we need to have the confidence is even greater. She had the God of Israel, Who
is, of course, the same Father to Whom we pray. But she did not know the Son of
God, she did not know the Holy Spirit, she did not know the intercession of our
Blessed Lady and the saints and the angels – and we do. So how much greater
should be our confidence!
That is the thing, again, that we need to see. How much do we really,
truly believe in what we profess? Not objectively, because we know it is all
true, but subjectively. How much are we really willing to put it into practice?
As they used to say, “Put your money where your mouth is.” If you really want
to say that you believe, then put it into practice. Recognize Who He is – the
Holy One of God – recognize His authority, and stand in awe of Who He is and
what He can do. Then put into practice what Our Lord told Thomas: Doubt no
longer, but believe.
* This text was
transcribed from the audio recording of a homily by Father Robert Altier with minimal editing.