At the heart of the faith of Israel lay a sense of expectation. Moses and the great prophets through their teaching and preaching assured the people that their God would ultimately be true to his promises. However vaguely they may have expressed it, these outstanding religious figures taught that almighty God would one day send a teacher and a saviour to his people. The One whom they foresaw would be different from anyone or anything else they had known and would have supreme authority from God himself. In our first reading today from the book of Deuteronomy Moses describes that One as a prophet who would teach and instruct the people, and it would be their duty to listen carefully to everything he said, for his words would in fact be God's words. The crowds in the gospels often wondered if, with Jesus, that truly special prophet had at last come among them.
Moses, when speaking of the prophet to come, actually outlines the figure of Christ who has come from the Father and speaks only what the Father has told him to speak. The words and teaching of Jesus, Mark tells us in the gospel, made a deep impression on his hearers. Here was a teaching that was new and fresh, unlike what they had been accustomed to hear. The things that Jesus taught and the deeds he accomplished continue to inspire us as we listen with faith. We gain encouragement and new hope for our own pilgrim journey to the Kingdom from careful listening to the Scriptures, particularly the gospels.
The power that Jesus exercised over unclean spirits, those hostile powers which in some shape or form assail and threaten fragile humanity in every age, reassures us that the struggle is not an unequal one. That same Jesus, now the risen Lord, stands by our side and will not allow us to be tested beyond our strength. He has come from God to be with us, to speak to us the word that the Father loves each one of us with a tender love, and for that we have his word as the Son of God. Let us pray today for the gift of wonder as we hear Jesus Christ speak to us and that we also can in truth also say, "Here is a teaching that is new!
+Michael Campbell OSA
Coadjutor Bishop of Lancaster
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