ePriest.com: Your Spanish Homily

Readings

Reading I: Deuteronomy 18:15-20
Psalm: Psalms 95:1-2, 6-7, 7-9
Reading II: First Corinthians 7:32-35
Gospel: Mark 1:21-28

Preaching Tip

Avoiding the Frankenstein Syndrome

Preaching is not performing; it is communicating. And nothing obstructs communication more than pretending to be someone we are aren't.  We shouldn't put on one personality in the pulpit and another in the office. Our own personality, united to Christ, is rich enough to adapt to the different needs of different situations and duties.

On this score, one expert eloquently warns against the slavish imitation of famous preachers:

  • "...Some men try to be more than they are; they want to appear holier, or more profound, or more dynamic. Others are scared to death to seem to be as much as they are; they do not what to be regarded as zealous or devout. Both project a false, unnatural personality...
  • "Many ministers preach with anything but the natural personality which is theirs. Either they speak with the personality of some preacher they admire (which is bad, but least worst), or more horribly, they adopt the collective personality which they imagine a preacher should have.
  • "Mary Shelley wrote about a similar attempt. Dr. Frankenstein pieced together the parts from a number of cadavers to make a man, but instead he created a monster. But no more so than the preacher whose personality is a composite of the bits and pieces of others, some long dead and nearly decomposed. And then when that monster roars and stalks about, he should not be surprised when children will not play about his feet."

Preaching for Today, by Clyde E. Fant, pp60-61

 

B To. 4                                                                               

"Hablar con autoridad"

¿Quién puede resistirse a las enseñanzas de un líder que habla con autoridad? Muchas cosas hizo Jesús en público y muchas enseñó hasta hacer mella en todos los corazones. Sus discípulos, sus enemigos y hasta los mismos demonios reconocieron que no podían rebatirlo porque hablaba con autoridad. Es una autoridad que viene de Dios. Todo cristiano debe proclamar el mensaje del Evangelio con la autoridad que le viene de Dios.

Hermanas y hermanos:

1.  La gente se maravillaba de que Jesucristo no enseñaba como los maestros de la ley, sino con autoridad que procede de su misma persona y además enseña una nueva doctrina. A la autoridad de la enseñanza se añade el poder de liberar del mal. En la antigüedad las enfermedades se atribuían a espíritus malignos, que se presentan a menudo como la personificación del mal. La novedad es que en la presencia de Jesús el mal queda reducido a la impotencia ya que incluso los espíritus malignos le obedecen.

2.  Los oyentes de Jesús en la sinagoga  tiemblan ante un hombre que puede hablar con una autoridad tan poderosa. Algo totalmente nuevo que se muestra en tres conceptos: enseñanza, autoridad y novedad: "¿Qué significa esto? Un nuevo modo de enseñar, con autoridad". El evangelista subraya el impacto que producía en la gente la enseñanza de Jesús. El asombro no es sólo el principio del conocimiento, como se ha dicho a veces, sino también de la fe, pero nunca de la indiferencia, del olvido, de la rutina.  

3.  Un mal estilo de ser persona, de relacionarnos con Dios y con los demás, se nos ha colado por el cuerpo, calándonos hasta la médula.  La ambición, el deseo de tener, la agresividad, el atropello del otro, la atención exclusiva a los propios problemas nos lleva a decir constantemente: ¡Sálveme yo y sálvese quien pueda! O peor todavía: ¡Sálveme yo, aunque se hundan los demás! Sartre, aquel filósofo francés, llegó a decir: "el infierno son los otros". Es el mal espíritu que no nos deja vivir.

Jesús no dijo muchas cosas nuevas, y cuando nos dejó como testamento su mandamiento: "Amaos los unos a los otros" no habría sido más que una repetición rutinaria si no hubiera añadido: "Como yo os he amado". ¡Esto sí que es radicalmente nuevo! Lo que enseña Jesús  es "otra cosa", otro mundo de pensamiento y de conducta. Jesús hace nacer así un mundo nuevo, porque cuando él habla es Dios el que habla y el que libera en nosotros un ser nuevo. Jesús viene a decirnos en definitiva: "Amaos como Dios os ama".

Debemos construir entre todos este mundo nuevo, sobre los cimientos de la justicia y de la caridad cristiana. Abramos cada día las páginas del Evangelio para aprender las lecciones que Jesús nos enseñó y seguir sus ejemplos. Así sea.

 

English Translation

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B                    

TO SPEAK WITH AUTHORITY
 

Who can resist the teachings of a leader who speaks with authority? Many things Jesus did in public... and many others He taught until they drew a crack in all the hearts. His disciples, his enemies, and even the evil spirits recognized that they could not argue with him because He spoke with authority. This is an authority that came from God. Every Christian must proclaim the message of the Gospel with the authority that comes from God.

Sisters and Brothers:

1. People were marveled by Jesus because he didn't teach the same way the doctors of the law. Instead, He taught with the same authority that comes from his own person. And besides that, He teaches a new doctrine. To the authority in his teachings we may add the capacity to liberate from evil. In ancient times, illnesses were attributed to evil spirits which present themselves as the personification of evil. The novelty is that in the presence of Jesus, evil is reduced to impotence since even the evil spirits obey Him.

2. Jesus' audience in the synagogue tremble in front of this man who can speak with such powerful authority. This is something completely new that shows in three ways: teaching, authority, and novelty. "What does this mean? A new way of teaching with authority?" The evangelist underlines the impact that Jesus' teaching had on the people. The awe is not just at the beginning of this knowledge, as it has been said other times, but also, at the beginning of faith as well (but never of indifference, forgetfulness, or routine).

3. A bad personal style, of relating to God and with others, has permeated through us, to our very essence. Ambition, the desire to own, aggressiveness, running above others, the exclusive attention to one's own problems drive us constantly to say: Save me and save yourselves! Or worse yet, Save me regardless of the rest! Sartre, the French philosopher said, "the others are in hell." This is the evil spirit that doesn't let us live.

Jesus said many new things to us, and when he left us as testament to his new commandment: "Love one another"... it would have been no more than a routine repetition if he hadn't added: "As I have loved you." This is completely different! What Jesus teaches is something else, another world of thought and behavior. Jesus makes a new world born, because when He speaks it is God who speaks and liberates in us a whole new person. Jesus comes to tell us for certain: "Love one another as God has loved you."

We must build together a new world, based upon justice and Christian charity. Let's open every day the pages of the Gospel so we can learn the lessons that Jesus taught us and by them, follow His example. Amen