By Fr Antony Christy, SDB –
4th Sunday in the Ordinary Time
28th January, 2018
Dt 18: 15-20; 1Cor 7: 32-35; Mk 1: 21-28
It was a home for street kids. As I entered, a calendar caught my attention. It had the words running thus: with the young missionaries of hope and joy. I hoped to see some young religious in formation or some people getting ready to go on a mission. But the picture that accompanied it was more surprising. It was a click of a bunch of street kids with eyes all shining and faces beaming with smiles. They had called them ‘missionaries of hope and joy’. Today’s first reading came alive to me when I saw this. When the Lord said, the Lord would raise a prophet as good as Moses and that prophet was not only Jesus who did great wonders when he was still alive but in and through Jesus, it is you and I who are called to be prophets today, here and now.
The second reading points to us the way of being powerful prophets of God…and the way is, an absolute allegiance to the almighty. To profess our allegiance to God with nothing to distract us, nothing to preoccupy us, nothing to hinder our speaking God’s word or doing God’s works. There is a saying in Tamil that says, only when you have something to safeguard under your care, you have anything to fear. When you have nothing to lose, you have nothing to fear. These kind of persons are true prophets!
The Gospel presents to us the model par excellence of a prophet of God: the very Son of God who professes and practices such a perfect allegiance to God that every one who saw him, heard him was either taken up or threatened. He had nothing to lose, because all that mattered to him was doing his Father’s will. Neither the powerful high priests and scribes, nor Herod not even the demons could frighten him – what an absolute man of God! His was an authority that came from his personal integrity and flawless faithfulness to God.
Our absolute allegiance to the almighty will make us like children who trust and depend totally on their parents. At times even a blind following of the directions given by God would suffice for us to work on our Sanctification and that of those around us.
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005, who has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (Specialisation in Catechetics). He is currently pursuing his doctoral research in Theology at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the Young towards a World of Peace and Dialogue is the passion that fires him on.