Daily Gospel Reflection
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September 3, 2024
Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee.
He taught them on the sabbath,
and they were astonished at his teaching
because he spoke with authority.
In the synagogue there was a man with the spirit of an unclean demon,
and he cried out in a loud voice,
“What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
Have you come to destroy us?
I know who you are–the Holy One of God!”
Jesus rebuked him and said, “Be quiet! Come out of him!”
Then the demon threw the man down in front of them
and came out of him without doing him any harm.
They were all amazed and said to one another,
“What is there about his word?
For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits,
and they come out.”
And news of him spread everywhere in the surrounding region.
The dear, gentle sweet Jesus we see in the soft-focused paintings and pictures I remember from first and second-grade religion classes at our parochial school is certainly one way to picture Jesus. After all, Jesus is God and, as John tells us, God is love, so we can expect that Jesus is kind, tender, and loving.
But in today’s gospel, we see a different Jesus; we see a person who speaks with power and authority so strikingly as to “astonish” his listeners in the synagogue that day. After being impressed with the power of Jesus’ speech, those present see Jesus encounter a man with an unclean spirit who calls Jesus by name and taunts him in what must have been a tense and uncomfortable scene.
But like a parent addressing a rebellious teenage child, Jesus sharply tells the unclean spirit to “be quiet” and commands the spirit to leave the man. You can sense the relief of the crowd when the spirit obeys and leaves the man without harming him, at which point the crowd “is amazed.” What is there about his words? Power.
What God says, simply is. In the beginning, God said, “Let there be light and there was light.” And so it was for all creation, the earth, solar system, the universe… everything. That command of all things, by and through his word, astonished those listeners in the synagogue that day.
So today, let’s contemplate the awesome power of God’s Word from the beginning of everything described in Genesis to today. While it is comforting to contemplate the kind, loving, and gentle God we learned about when we were young, we must also remember God’s power and majesty so that we can surrender to it and respect its authority by conforming our lives to the example of God’s own son, Jesus.
Prayer
Father in heaven, from the days of Abraham and Moses until our own day, you have formed a people in the image of your Son. Bless your people with the gift of your kingdom. May we serve with our every desire and show love one for another even as you have loved us. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Gregory the Great was a civilian official before becoming a monk, a cardinal, and finally, one of the most influential popes the Church has ever known.
He was born in 540, the son of a wealthy Roman senator. He was educated by the best teachers in Rome, and when he was still a young man, the emperor named him chief magistrate of Rome.
He filled this role for five years but clearly had other desires on his heart than his political career. When his father died, Gregory turned his home into a monastery and became a monk. He used his inheritance to build six other monasteries in the region.
When it came time to select a new pope, the faithful unanimously selected him by popular acclaim. As pope, Gregory was filled with zeal—he worked tirelessly and his contributions profoundly shaped the life of the Church.
As leader of the Church, he kept a close watch over the clergy and encouraged them towards holiness. He used papal money to ransom prisoners and to care for persecuted Jews and victims of famine and sickness. People of his day called him the father of the city of Rome, and the joy of the world.
He once observed English children being sold in the Roman Forum as slaves, and the sight made him decide to send missionaries to Canterbury—this was the beginning of Christianity among the Anglo-Saxons. He also sent missionaries to France, Spain, and parts of Africa during a time when Europe was being overturned by Lombards, barbarian forces from the north. These efforts helped Christianize these forces—Gregory himself went to visit the king of the Lombards.
Gregory is known best for his contributions to the liturgy. He reformed the Mass and the daily prayer of the Church and wrote prayers we still use today as well as commentaries on Scripture that shaped theology through the Middle Ages. He also collected melodies of plain chant used in the liturgy—today that style is known as Gregorian chant, after him.
Gregory is one of the four great doctors of the Church, along with St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, and St. Jerome. These four and 33 other doctors have been singled out for their ability to articulate and teach the faith.
Gregory died in 604, and his relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica. He is patron of teachers and students, musicians and masons. He is depicted in several places on campus, here in stained glass from the Basilica and the second window from the chapel in Lyons Hall. He is often shown with a bird nearby—it is said that the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove spoke into his ear when he preached.
“The proof of love is in the works,” St. Gregory said. “Where love exists, it works great things. But when it ceases to act, it ceases to exist.”
Pope St. Gregory the Great, you were the monk who became one of the greatest popes ever—pray for us!