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4th Sunday of Year B – 2021

Recently, I watched a webinar, a seminar on the web, it is popular nowadays.
There are all kinds of them on different topics.

Of course, in this time of pandemic, many of them are about the virus causing havoc in our lives.
The doctor giving the lecture I listened to was a specialist in epidemics.
His manner was simple and he spoke in such a way that everyone could follow what he was explaining.
When the presentation was over, I said to myself: ‘That man knows what he is talking about!’

Later in the day, I took my Bible to read the gospel of this coming Sunday (Mk.1:21-28).
There, I met a group of people who could have said exactly the same words I spoke about the lecturer I watched on the web.

The text says:
“When the sabbath came, he (Jesus) entered the synagogue and taught. 
The people were astounded at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.”
 
In today’s language, these people could have said of Jesus:
‘He knows what he is talking about.’

If we look at our own lives, when we are in need, this is the kind of person we look for.
In need of a lawyer for a judicial case,
in need of a financial counselor for a transaction,
in need of a doctor for some health matter,
in every situation, we want the best, someone who knows what our need is and how to remedy it –
in other words: someone who knows what he is talking about.

I personally think that, when it comes to my very life – now and… the life after this life…
I need, I really do, someone who knows what he is talking about,
someone who knows from experience what life means, and what death means as well.

I know the very Person I can address myself to…
You probably know Him also?…

Note: Another reflection on a different theme is available in French at: https://image-i-nations.com/4e-dimanche-de-lannee-b-2021/

  

Source: Image: lisu.rvasia.org

4th Sunday of Year B

The word IMPRESSION is used in different ways and has different connotations.
Someone walking in the wet sand will leave a mark, a footprint, an impression.
Leaves pressed between two surfaces will also remain imprinted, or create an impression.

Political figures and business executives are very keen on making a good impression!
Actors and athletes are equally eager to please crowds of fans and create a favorable impression!

These reflections came to me as I read this Sunday’s gospel text (4th Sunday of Year B – Mk.1:21-28) where we are told:
“His (Jesus) teaching made a deep impression on them…”
 
A ‘deep impression’ – something that goes beyond the surface to reach the depths of a person.
Is that the way Jesus’ message touches us every time it is proclaimed?

Listening to Jesus preaching, the people in the synagogue of Caparnaum were hearing these words for the first time.
The message was new, the sound of it was original – not a repetition of past teaching.
It did not have a familiar ring to it, it was an unheard of speech, something creative.

They said it openly: “Here is a teaching that is new…”
And they added: “And with authority behind it.”
No wonder it made a deep impression on them – it answered their longing to hear God’s message in a way that we would qualify nowadays as ‘authentic’.

Our situation is very different from theirs: we know well the texts of the gospel, perhaps too well?
For years we have been reading them, listening to homilies, following retreats preached on this and that section of the gospel accounts.
Hearing the first words of a given text, we may say to ourselves: ‘Oh, I know this story,’ and our mind is soon carried away to other more pressing concerns!
Will the text leave a deep impression on us?
Can it really do so in the circumstances?… 

One day, I heard someone say that God is ‘the really REAL’ – an unusual theological statement, but how true!
It may be that for Jesus message to make ‘a deep impression’ on us – and a lasting one – Jesus would need to become ‘really REAL’…

Words spoken and written having become THE Word – a person encountered in the flesh of my daily life and experience…

Source: Images: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee    whereisyvette.com    lds.org

Note: Another reflection on a different theme is available at: https://image-i-nations.com/4e-dimanche-de-lannee-b/