by Fr. Tommy Lane
It is said that a pilgrimage to Israel is like the Fifth Gospel because after such a pilgrimage we read the Sacred Scriptures with a new understanding having been in the places associated with Jesus and mentioned in the Gospels. (The phrase "Fifth Gospel" was used by Pope Paul VI, see Propositio 51 of Verbum Domini 89.) One of the places a pilgrimage to Israel visits is the location of the synagogue in Capernaum where Jesus exorcised the man in today’s Gospel (Mark 1:21-28). Also, in that synagogue Jesus preached his sermon on the Bread of Life in John 6 which will be our Sunday Gospel for a number of Sundays this summer (18th – 21st Sundays in Ordinary Time Year B). Another place to visit in Capernaum is the house where Peter lived since Jesus lodged with Peter in Capernaum which will feature in our Gospel next Sunday (Mark 1:29-39). Because of his fishing business, Peter had moved to Capernaum as it was on the northern shore of the large lake called the Sea of Galilee. A church with a glass floor now stands over the location of Peter’s house where Jesus used to stay so you can look right down into that area.
The demon-possessed man in the synagogue in Capernaum in the Gospel today was freed by Jesus (Mark 1:21-28). He was liberated by Jesus to live a new life in the freedom God meant him to have. It is not just demons who hold people captive. Nowadays people can be held captive by all sorts of things such as addictions of various kinds. But the Lord is always waiting to help people gain freedom. As an example, I would like to share with you an account written by a young man, Noel Kenny, for the Power to Change Campaign in Ireland in 2002.
Around 1979, the heroin epidemic swept through our community, the inner city of Dublin, and all the young people ended up hooked on it. I had two brothers that became addicts and after seeing the devastation it brought into our home and into their lives, I made a vow that I would never be addicted to anything.
When I was 18, however, I started hanging out with a young man named Mick and we smoked some dope together…For the next four years it just became my everything. The things I had dreaded about my brothers’ life had come upon me. I started to dislike myself and everything I was doing.
In 1989, Mick came strolling through the flats [condos] once again. He’d been away for some time, but all of a sudden, he was there with a Bible in his hand saying, “Jesus Christ can change your life.” We thought, “Look what drugs have done to poor Mick. Now he thinks he’s God.”
With the gang, it was easy to jeer and to slag him off [criticize him], but when I was on my own, I knew he had something that I needed in my life. There was a peace in Mick’s face that I did not see in anyone else’s in my community. So, I invited him up to my flat [condo] to smoke some dope, for old time’s sake. He came up, but instead of doing drugs, he told me about the love of God…
I kept saying to Mick, “What do I have to give him? Do I have to give God my drugs? My money” But Mick said, “No, he loves you just the way you are. But he also loves you enough to change you from the way you are.”
Eventually, I committed my life to Christ. I didn’t have any great revelation, but I just knew my sins were forgiven…When I go to bed at night, I have a peace in my heart. I have peace in my mind. I can put my head down to sleep and know that I’m going to wake up in the morning with no shame, no guilt and no sin hanging over my life. This is the love; this is the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I gave up drugs for ever, I have since had the privilege of leading many drug addicts and other hurting people to a personal relationship with Jesus. For me this demonstrates the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to change lives. (Edited and permission received from Power to Change in 2002 to use it on this website.)
As I said about today’s Gospel, it is not just demons who hold people captive. Nowadays people can be held captive by all sorts of things such as addictions of various kinds. But the Lord is always waiting to help people gain freedom as experienced by Noel and Mick in that narrative. Turn to the Lord and allow him to free you in whatever way you need his freedom. I would like to conclude with an excerpt of Pope Francis’ first encyclical, Evangelii Gaudium (Joy of the Gospel) in which he invites us to meet Jesus.
I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. No one should think that this invitation is not meant for him or her, since “no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord”. The Lord does not disappoint those who take this risk; whenever we take a step towards Jesus, we come to realize that he is already there, waiting for us with open arms. Now is the time to say to Jesus: “Lord, I have let myself be deceived; in a thousand ways I have shunned your love, yet here I am once more, to renew my covenant with you. I need you. Save me once again, Lord, take me once more into your redeeming embrace”. How good it feels to come back to him whenever we are lost! Let me say this once more: God never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of seeking his mercy. Christ, who told us to forgive one another “seventy times seven” (Mt 18:22) has given us his example: he has forgiven us seventy times seven. Time and time again he bears us on his shoulders. No one can strip us of the dignity bestowed upon us by this boundless and unfailing love. With a tenderness which never disappoints, but is always capable of restoring our joy, he makes it possible for us to lift up our heads and to start anew. Let us not flee from the resurrection of Jesus, let us never give up, come what will. May nothing inspire more than his life, which impels us onwards! (Evangelii Gaudium 3)
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2021
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
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