OUR GOD IS REAL AND PRESENT IN OUR LIFE!
OUR GOD IS REAL AND PRESENT IN OUR LIFE!
This weekend’s readings remind us that God is with us. He cares for us and our needs. In the first reading, we see Moses who shared with the people of Israel God’s promise. Moses was about to die. People were concerned about their future. Moses was leading them through the wilderness to the Promised Land and he is about to die. The question was for them, now how were they going to know the will of God. God answered their concern and question through Moses. He told them, God will raise a prophet like him and they will learn the will of God from no one but their prophets. There are two sides to this promise. The first hint is all the true prophets who were to succeed Moses will bring them the will of God. The second is that this promise ultimately leads to the coming of Jesus. This passage came to be understood in a quasi-Messianic sense in the New Testament. Peter in his kerygmatic discourse (Acts 3:22) mentions the promise from Deuteronomy (18:15), in the first reading.
At the transfiguration of Jesus (Mark 9:7), Moses and Elijah appeared. There was a bright cloud that cast a shadow over them, a voice came from the cloud that said, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Here we see Father reveals His Son, and an invitation to listen to him.
In the Gospel, we see Jesus in Capernaum, in Galilee, the center of his ministry. The new Moses is here, who inaugurated the new exodus at the baptism in Jordan. Israelites celebrate Sabbath on the seventh day of the week. The temple is in Jerusalem, but every city has a Synagogue which is a small building used for the gathering for prayer, worship, and instruction in the scripture. It took place day-to-day catechesis of the people. Jesus was there and he was already considered as a teacher and they were in amazement in his teaching.
All sorts of people were around Jesus: some of them accepted him as the Messiah, some were still wondering and asking questions about his identity, some rejected him and looked for his fault, so they could arrest him. In this Gospel passage, there was a man with an unclean spirit. This unclean spirit confesses that Jesus is the “Holy One.” It was not because of faith, but it was out of fear. The unclean spirit obeyed Jesus and came out of him. It couldn’t resist Jesus’ word. The Divine power is displayed through Jesus' word.
We have a two-fold mission: confess Jesus’ name and continue the mission he entrusted us. We received this call at baptism, then confirmed, and nourished at every Eucharist. He is calling us to know him deeper and deeper and share with others. Every time we gather to celebrate the Eucharistic, we are called to live the experience and share with others. Bishop Powers in his Pastoral Letter on Evangelization, “As the Father has sent me, so I sent you,” explains what personal evangelization is. He says, “A classic definition of evangelization is ‘one beggar telling the other beggars where he found the bread’. We have discussed the ‘bread’ of this definition thoroughly in this letter, but what we have not touched on yet is the hunger that it satisfied” (page 16).
Our God walks with us, he forgives, heals, liberates, and gives us nourishment. We are in need of genuine hunger for him. We need to profess his name and share with others. Bishop shares with us the same page on personal evangelization and gives us guidance on how to evangelize: 1. Pray every day: Intimacy with God; 2. Invest in Christian friendship: reach out peers or neighbors which could lead to faith sharing. 3. Invest in relationships in your spheres of influence: through the guidance of the Holy Spirit listen to the people we interact with every day. 4: When someone opens up to you, respond: Offer to pray for them-if you are comfortable offer a prayer with them.