Fourth Sunday in the Ordinary Time

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time Scripture Readings

Thomas Green in his book “When the Well Runs Dry” tells us to always seek the Lord of all consolation and not the consolations of God. What does Thomas Green mean by these words?

Let us examine the man with the unclean spirit. After Jesus cast the unclean spirit from him, what would the man be talking about? Human nature would want to dwell on the miracle. So, in his human nature, the man would most probably be willing to tell anyone who would listen, what a marvelous thing this man from Nazareth had done for him. However, the effect of the miracle would only last a few days and would be forgotten unless it were accompanied by the conversion of the heart. The miracle is the consolation of God or His gifts bestowed on His people either freely or to an answer to prayer.

However, the greatest gift God has given us, is the gift of His only Son. Jesus performed miracles because the condition of humankind was not what God had intended at creation. The miracles also served as an attention getter to make people more aware of the presence of someone special among them. Jesus delivered a message to repent and return to relation with God the Father. When a person believes in the depths of their heart that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior and they profess it openly, they are now moving to a relationship with the God of all consolation.

Throughout church history, when the people cried out about injustice, immorality, and other evils, God sent someone and endowed them with special gifts and talents to lead the people of God back to Him and cast out the darkness in the lives of His people.

When the Church was forgetting its mission in the 12th century, God called St. Francis to rebuild His church. The rebuilding was not brick and mortar, but the hearts and minds of the people to be faithful to an all-loving God. During the Protestant Reformation, God called St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and St. Ignatius Loyola to restore His Church. In the last century, when communism, fascism, and socialism were threatening to crush human rights and place people in bondage, God gave us St. John Paul II to bring the darkness into the light and to expose it for the evil it was and free the people to worship God freely and openly.

Notice in the Gospel reading how the Jewish authorities viewed Jesus’ miracle. They said, “a new teaching with authority”. Jesus was upsetting the apple cart and challenging the religious leaders of His time and they knew it. The Jewish leaders began to plot at that moment how they would silence this man.

But the God man, Jesus, cannot be silenced. We face unparalleled threats to our freedoms and to our Church. For a new world order to succeed under the control of communist and socialist, the faithful must remain silent or be silenced.

We need notice how the great spiritual leaders of the past reacted to the threats of their time. They did not riot, mount insurrections, or speak angry words. Instead, the great spiritual leaders prepared themselves by first being present to God in all things. Secondly, they allowed themselves to surrender to the will of God and be transformed into the image of Jesus. Thirdly, they allowed God to love them more and shared that love with everyone they met. They did the work of God and let God do His work.

If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts.

May the good Lord continue to bless us, protect us from every evil, and eventually lead us all to eternal life.

Deacon Phil