January 11, 2011 Tuesday of the First Week In Ordinary Time

Reading 1
Heb 2:5-12
It was not to angels that God subjected the world to come,
of which we are speaking.
Instead, someone has testified somewhere:
What is man that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man that you care for him?
You made him for a little while lower than the angels;
you crowned him with glory and honor,
subjecting all things under his feet.
In “subjecting” all things to him,
he left nothing not “subject to him.”
Yet at present we do not see “all things subject to him,”
but we do see Jesus “crowned with glory and honor”
because he suffered death,
he who “for a little while” was made “lower than the angels,”
that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
For it was fitting that he,
for whom and through whom all things exist,
in bringing many children to glory,
should make the leader to their salvation perfect through suffering.
He who consecrates
and those who are being consecrated all have one origin.
Therefore, he is not ashamed to call them “brothers” saying:
I will proclaim your name to my brethren,
in the midst of the assembly I will praise you.

Ps 8:2ab and 5, 6-7, 8-9

Responsorial Psalm

R. (see 7) You have given your Son rule over the works of your hands.
O LORD, our Lord,
how glorious is your name over all the earth!
What is man that you should be mindful of him,
or the son of man that you should care for him?
R. You have given your Son rule over the works of your hands.
You have made him little less than the angels,
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands,
putting all things under his feet.
R. You have given your Son rule over the works of your hands.
All sheep and oxen,
yes, and the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air, the fishes of the sea,
and whatever swims the paths of the seas.
R. You have given your Son rule over the works of your hands.

Mk 1:21-28

Gospel

Jesus came to Capernaum with his followers,
and on the sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught.
The people were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.
In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit;
he cried out, “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, “Quiet! Come out of him!”
The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him.
All were amazed and asked one another,
“What is this?
A new teaching with authority.
He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.”
His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.

REFLECTION

The unclean spirits know Jesus as the Holy One of God. It would have been to his advantage if he allowed them to speak about him. People would have recognized him earlier and probably they wouldn't have to nail him to the cross.  But Jesus rebuked him and drove him out of the man. Why did Jesus do that? Because he also knows the tactics of the devil.  The devil wanted to destroy God's plan by preemption.  Jesus knows that there is a time for everything. It was not yet the time for people to know him.  He has still to suffer and die and come back to life before people will know that he is the Messiah. That is why he stopped the unclean spirit from divulging his real personality. Many times we have been victimized by the devil because of haste. We are so in a hurry to realize our plans that we cannot wait for God's will anymore. A boy who was in a hurry to have a butterfly that he opened the cocoon himself, did not know that he killed the butterfly he is waiting for. Many of our projects have been destroyed because of haste. Let us ask the Lord Jesus to teach us to wait.