Voices to listen to

Today’s readings: Deut. 18, 15-20; 1 Cor. 7, 32-35; Mark 1, 21-28.

Entering Capernaum, Jesus risked provoking official hostility but this did not deter him from pressing his criticism and from publicly breaking the law. There was something radically new with his kingdom project that made it incompatible with institutionalised religion.

His symbolic action of exorcism and healing in today’s gospel raises important issues of interpretation.

If Jesus were simply a miracle worker, his ministry would have been politically innocuous. Healers and magicians abounded in his social and religious context. So the official hostility Jesus encounters must have an explanation.

His teaching is outstanding, causing the astonishment of people and creating contrast with the teachings people were normally subjected to. It is also worth asking why as soon as Jesus stepped in the domain of the Scribes, “just then there was a man possessed by an unclean spirit” who confronts the hostile intruder. It clearly transpires that Jesus’s presence was threatening.

Jesus, if and when taken seriously, is always threatening to our institutionalised alienations both collectively as Church, and personally, in our interiority. In line with the reading from Deuteronomy, this confirms that God is above our often stagnating practices and will raise up prophets for himself to whom we should listen and who will lead us towards true liberation.

The times we live in demand that we all give heed to whoever deserves listening to. We are all to some extent fed up of being led by institutions, both political and religious, that lack the prophetic stamina that really addresses people’s needs and respects their dignity.

There were similar times in the history of God’s people, recorded as faith-generating experiences in the Scriptures. It always stands with us whether to let turning-points in our stories, collectively and individually, to be faith-generating.

This is what the healing of an unclean spirit in the gospel stands for. We need to be washed from all that is unclean in our lives, whether that be in politics, in church life, in civic life, or in our own personal lifestyles. And this can come about only if we let ourselves be confronted by a teaching that has authority over us.

This may sound disturbing today, because we have become used to shun all that is imparted on us with authority. But authority here has nothing to do with imposition.

Jesus was not imposing anything on anyone. People were amazed with him because he was teaching with authority in the sense that for them, in contrast with the way the Scribes taught them, he was credible, worthy of trust, and worthy to be listened to.

Are there voices in today’s culture and in our political and religious scenarios that are worthy of our trust? When there are no such voices, that would simply be tragic.

Psychologist Howard Gardner, in Leading Minds, writes about Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Jean Monnet, Pope John XXIII and so many others who throughout the troubled 20th century were able to leave an imprint on the stories, feelings, thoughts, and lives of so many people and on society in general.

Will tomorow’s generations have similar leading minds to refer to and look up to in future? This may sound too harsh on our times. But we sorely need prophetic voices to look up to.

What will it take to solve the biggest and most pressing issues of our days? We still linger on with such basic issues as poverty, environmental degradation, terrorism, corruption, racism, human trafficking and endless cycles of violence, both verbal and physical. Not to mention our big difficulties in finding common grounds on what is really needed in education and family concerns, as well as in more vital issues concerning the dignity of life.

There are unclean spirits in this day and age from which we need to be exorcised. We need teachings that are authoritative because they are credible and because they strengthen the moral fibre of our society as it is.