Rev. James A. Wallace, C.Ss.R.

Jan 29 2025

The Real Agenda—Forgiveness of Sins

When Jesus came preaching, teaching, healing, and exorcising, the response was amazement and wonder. He was a “crowd magnet,” as we see in today’s Gospel. When Jesus showed up, it was standing room only. What would be the next miracle? So when the paralytic came down, there might even have been a little “ho-hum” in the air. “Didn’t he do something along these lines that night outside Simon’s mother-in-law’s house?”

But healing the body and casting out demons were only the first steps in the new creation God had in mind. The next step went to the heart of the matter— salvation. “Child, your sins are forgiven.” Alarms went off, at least in the heads of some of the legal experts present. “Did he just say? . . . No, not possible . . . Only God can . . . .” But Jesus, who really could hear people thinking, had no trouble saying it again: “That you may know the Son of Man has the authority to forgive sins on earth . . . ” then he turned to the paralytic: “Get up and go.” And the man got up and went.

All the other things Jesus had been doing were acceptable, except when he did them on a Sabbath, for this was crossing a clearly defined line in the law of Moses. Forgiving sin? Only God could do that. Yes, that was the point. And still is. So don’t let past actions—even God’s, much less yours—lock you in or keep God out. God remains at work in Jesus offering forgiveness, reconciliation, atonement to all who realize they need it.

Consider/Discuss

How do you feel when you hear Jesus say, “Your sins are forgiven”?
Do you trust God to do new things? For you? In you? Through you?
Do you accept that God has put the Spirit in our hearts “as a first installment” of God’s desire for total communion?

Responding to the Word

Creator God, in giving us Jesus, you began the final move of a new creation in us and in the world. We thank you for offering through your Son the gift of forgiveness for our sins. May we accept this gift of grace and work to bring others to know its healing power. Amen.

Jan 29 2025

Bringing Outsiders In

These first days of Jesus’ ministry present him preaching, teaching, and healing to bring people to know that God is near. His message and his deeds bring people back to full life in the community. By casting out demons and curing the sick he restores to full humanity those suffering from possession and illness. Today we find Jesus confronting a condition that must have been even more excruciating—leprosy.

To be a leper was to be cut off from others in all ways. You were cast out of the community, isolated, doomed to live in deserted places, no longer part of the human family, unable to participate in any social events, and considered unfit to worship God. It was assumed that if you had leprosy, you had sinned in some way. Your life was summed up in the words the Law of Moses told you to cry out whenever anyone came near, “Unclean, unclean!”

For Jesus to touch a leper meant that in the eyes of others he also became unclean and unfit to associate and worship with others. Even so, when a leper asked for healing, Jesus was unequivocal in his reply: “I do will it. Be made clean.” It is easy to hear in his response the authority of the Son of God, set on giving glory to his Father. Yet Jesus, ever respectful of the law, sent the man to the priest, as commanded in the book of Leviticus. In Jesus, pity took precedence over the law, but did not abolish it.

Consider/Discuss

Have you ever been or seen anyone cut off from a family, a group, or even the community?
When St Paul says, “Be imitators of me as I am of Christ,” how does that speak to your life in terms of Jesus’ healing the leper in the Gospel?

Responding to the Word

Jesus, you came to bring us into deeper communion with the Father and one another. Give us the courage to reach out, as you did, to those in need of our compassion and help. Let us not be afraid of the opinions of others when we see that good can be done. Amen.

Jan 29 2025

A Balanced Life

Job’s words remind us how weariness, heaviness of heart, sadness, can sweep over us at times and lodge bone-deep. All of our work seems little more than “drudgery.” Sometimes these feelings are inexplicable; at other times the loss of a loved one, a sudden change in our lives, the discovery of a serious illness can be the cause.

This second half of a day in the life of Jesus shows us his response to those things that weigh people down, whether it is an illness afflicting the loved one of a disciple, or strangers who were ill or possessed by demons. Jesus responds to those brought before him, curing and driving out many demons. He is the compassion of God present to the people who come to him.

Jesus obviously spent the whole day meeting the needs of the people, long into the evening. Then, perhaps he sat up with Simon and Andrew, James and John, talking with them about what had happened, listening to how this coming of the kingdom of God into their world was affecting them. Then he slept.

We are told that he woke early and went off to a deserted place to pray. This must be how he got the strength to go into another day. As Simon says, “Everyone is looking for you”—whether to thank him or to ask for one more favor we don’t know. But Jesus says it is time to move on, to preach and free others from demons.

Consider/Discuss

Consider how important prayer was for Jesus, so he could keep on doing what he understood as his mission in life.
Do you have a balanced life: work and prayer, time with family, friends, and sleep?

Responding to the Word

Lord Jesus, you came to show us the face of your Father, who wishes us to be fully alive in the Spirit. Give us the health we need to do the work you have called us to do. Help us to see clearly what our life needs to be open to you and your Father’s will. Amen.

Jan 29 2025

A New Day Dawns

Some years ago there was a series of books called A Day in the Life of . . . . Sometimes it was a continent like Africa; sometimes a country like America, the Soviet Union, or Thailand; and sometimes a state like Hawaii or California. One hundred top photographers visually captured the experience of this place in a twenty-four-hour period. In today’s and next Sunday’s Gospels, Mark verbally gives us “A Day in the Life of Jesus, God’s Prophet.”

The first experience of Jesus as one whose word effects what he says occurs in the synagogue. Here Jesus encounters an unclean spirit. The spirit makes the first move, naming Jesus as the Holy One of God. In biblical thought, naming a person gave you some degree of power over that person. Not here. With a few quick words, Jesus asserts his authority: “Quiet! Come out of him!”

How fitting that Jesus’ first public act in the first Gospel to be written down is to free a human being from an evil spirit that has brought him chaos and destruction. This event reveals Jesus as one who came to free us from all that oppresses and beats us down. This liberation continues to be the work of all who follow Jesus.

We don’t hear much about evil spirits these days, but can anyone deny their presence in our world? Consider the murder, mutilation, rape, and torture that have taken place in eastern Congo alone for the last twelve years with an estimated death toll of 6.9 million. Change is impossible without God’s help.

Consider/Discuss

Do you believe evil spirits continue to dwell in the human heart? • Does this mean we are not responsible but that “the devil makes us do it”?
Does this Gospel offer any hope to people today in the face of so much suffering and death in the world?

Responding to the Word

Jesus, you are revealed as one who has the power to cast out evil spirits who take up residence in our hearts. May your liberating word free us from all that brings harm, and may we work to bring your healing spirit to touch our world. Amen.

Jan 29 2025

God’s Will: The Conversion of All

You might want to read the early part of Jonah’s story leading to his ending up in the belly of a “great fish” for three days and nights—a biblical moment distinct in its appeal to the sense of smell, besides bringing out the more playful side of Israel’s God. Coming today in mid-story, we miss the struggle between Jonah’s stubbornness (“I won’t go to Nineveh!”) and God’s (“Yes, you will!”). But today’s emphasis falls on how powerful God’s word proves to be, even when uttered by an unwilling prophet who wanted nothing more than to see Nineveh go up in smoke—people, property, and even cows.

Thomas Aquinas once said that when you love a person, their loves become your own. A pleasant enough thought, except when you extend it to God, and realize that it is not given to us to determine what might fall outside of God’s loving, enormous embrace and desire to save. While the world that is passing away is often marked by the mess we humans have made of it, God is determined to change this destructive course into a world renewed and wants us engaged in the work.

We get a hint of what this means when we hear the message Jesus proclaimed: God’s reign is at hand, so turn away from sin and believe in the gospel—the good news Jesus preached, the good news that is Jesus. We are invited to be part of the solution rather than the problem, joining in the work begun by Jesus and preaching God’s offer of salvation to all.

Consider/Discuss

Do you see yourself called to proclaim that God’s kingdom is “at hand”?
What does this message mean?
How do you live out this invitation?

Responding to the Word

Loving God, when Jesus proclaimed that your kingdom was near, he was announcing that you were at work in him for the salvation of the world. Help us to trust this message and to hear his call in our lives, respond to it, and communicate this gospel to others. Amen.