SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER

SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER
Homily for Tues of the 1st Wk in Ordinary Time,
10 Jan 2023, Mk 1:21-28

“Speaking truth to power”—this is the English expression that comes to my mind when I hear of Jesus being described by our Gospel today as “ONE WHO TAUGHT WITH AUTHORITY.”
Jesus had a good mentor in John the Baptist, of course, who spoke truth to power even if he was aware that he could lose his head for it. He was not the type who could be intimidated, either by Herod whom he called a “fox”, or by the priestly class, called the Sadducees, with whom he got into conflict when he denounced the buying-and-selling that they had allowed in the temple’s courtyard.
Not even the watchful eyes of the Pharisees could make him hold his tongue. He told them straight to their faces that they “devour the houses of widows and, as a pretext, recite lengthy prayers.”(Mark 12:40) When he was asked by Pilate whether or not he was the King of the Jews, he had the gall to answer and say, “Are you saying this on your own or have others merely told you about me?” (John 18:34).
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is challenged by a man who was possessed by an evil spirit. The aggressive spirit calls him by name—Jesus of Nazareth—and identifies him as “The Holy One of God.” In Jewish culture, naming a person is supposed to be an assertion of power over that person. Take note, the possessed man, or rather the spirit inside him speaks in the first person plural “us” to suggest that he was not alone.
In another story of exorcism, the narrative about the possessed man from the Gerasene region in Mark chapter 5, when Jesus commands the evil spirit to identify himself, he answers by saying “Legion! There are many of us!” In the Roman army, a legion was supposed to be the largest military unit; it could have around 4,200 foot soldiers and 300 horse-riding soldiers. Wow! Imagine 4,700 devils possessing one person? But Mark tells us that not even a threat of number could intimidate Jesus.
Pope Francis has often