Homily for the 4th Sunday of Ordinary Time, January 28, 2024. Gospel of St. Mark 1:21-28. Theme: A Powerful Savior or Just a Beige Jesus?
Believe it or not, Ash Wednesday is just 2 weeks away, so it's a good time for us to begin thinking about what we will do for Lent. And today’s gospel is a good one to help us do this because like the possessed man we each need to be freed from forces that disrupt our relationship with God and one another. Not in the same way as him, of course, for he was actually possessed by demons, but we can still become targets of their temptations. Unclean spirits of greed, lust, and anger, of envy, pride and selfishness can enslave us and prevent us from living the kind of life that we were created to live. And so, like the possessed man, we too stand in need of a Power greater than ourselves, the Power of Jesus Christ, to set us free from the inside out.
In the gospel we saw that as soon as Jesus entered the scene, without even saying a word, the demon within the man cried out and began to cringe and weaken. Then at the simple command of Jesus, the hellish forces were utterly destroyed and cast out. This happened simply and solely by the power of His Presence, a power that was able to calm storms, open the eyes of the blind, heal the sick, and expel demons. People rushed to Him from everywhere. They just couldn’t get enough of Him! So, what happened over the centuries that turned this once impossible-to-ignore Messiah into just a “beige Jesus” in the minds of so many people? How did this Savior Whom everyone wanted to see and touch end up becoming Someone Whom people nowadays can so easily dismiss?
God’s Word in Hebrews 13:8 says that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever” which means that He hasn't changed. He is still, in 2024, a Presence that radiates Divine Power that can bring about miracles and transform lives. And His Presence is still among us in many ways, most especially in the Eucharist that we adore and receive. So what happened? The only answer is that we Christians are the ones who have changed throughout the centuries and as a result we have bequeathed a “Beige Jesus” to the world today. But Lent can be an opportunity for each one of us to turn this around and begin to believe more expectantly in the Power of Jesus to work miracles and transform lives today!
You see, back in the time of the Gospels people had deep trust and hopeful expectation in their hearts that Jesus could and would come to their assistance. They truly believed that life-changing miracles could and would happen by turning to the Power of His Presence. And so they risked being with Him and following Him as the Messiah even if it meant rejection by their Jewish peers. And as Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire, even under threat of death, Christians were still willing to take a risk on Jesus. They were confident that the Risen Lord would continue to show this Power through His disciples because He said He would. And they believed Him. This wasn’t simply a matter of wishful hoping or the power of positive thinking, They truly believed and completely expected that Jesus would do what He said He would do. It was an expectant faith rooted in a deep personal relationship with Christ and nurtured within the community of a dynamic Christianity.
However after the 4th century things began to change. There was no longer any risk in following Jesus because Christianity had become the preferred religion of the Empire. More and more important people became Christians, often as a way of climbing the social ladder and within a relatively short amount of time Christianity became a religion of the status quo, more a matter of culture and convenience than of personal conviction and heartfelt conversion. A personal relationship with Jesus and the willingness to take a risk on Him were no longer the fuel of faith for so many and as a result the bright light of Christ began to flicker, to slowly fade here and there. And this is where we start to see the gradual emergence of a “beige Jesus” and the rise of a cultural Catholicism that is nothing more than a lukewarm Christianity of the status quo. And quite honestly it’s still very much with us today.
But the Risen Christ promised that He would be with us always. And so expectant faith in the Power of Jesus expressed in a risk-taking Christianity lived on in those whom we have come to call the saints. They put vibrant color back into Christ and blazing fire back into their Christianity. This is why they get our attention and why their lives are so alluring and fascinating to us. They never stopped trusting, they never stopped believing and they never stopped expecting miracles and life-changing transformations!
But there’s a big mistake that we often make about the saints. We too easily think of them as exceptions and not the rule. But the truth is that they were what we all are supposed to be. They only seem extraordinary to us because we ourselves too often settle for the “beige Jesus” of lukewarm Christianity. The saints, however, refused to give in to this attitude. They took risks by daring to be different and by opening up their hearts to the Power of Jesus Christ to still work miracles and still transform lives. And in return Jesus never ever let them down.
And this brings me full circle back to where I started with the topic of Lent because it’s a special time for deepening our faith and transforming our lives. It’s our annual invitation to get reacquainted with the real Jesus and to recommit to a real Christianity in our lives. It’s a time to take seriously our baptismal call to holiness.
To help support and encourage you in this spiritual growth, we are offering a very special Lenten program this year called “Lent With The Chosen”. Those who participate will have a small book of short Gospel reflections for daily use and then once a week on Wednesday evenings we’ll all come together in the hall to watch an hour-long episode of The Chosen, which is an award-winning series that is definitely a remedy for banishing the idea of a “beige Jesus”.
You can get an idea of what The Chosen is like by coming to our Pasta Dinner on Feb 10 where we will be showing the first episode of the series. At that time I will also explain a bit more about this special Lenten program. The opportunity to sign up to participate will be coming to you via Flocknotes, so if you don’t presently get Flocknotes, be sure to contact me or the parish office to be put on the Flocknotes list.
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