A Letter From Father Rafal – 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time
The Gospel for today shows us what happens every day in our lives - the spiritual battle. We see that Jesus entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and we see, “a man possessed by an unclean spirit.” He began to cry out, “What do you want from us, Jesus of Nazareth? You have come to destroy us. I know who you are: the Holy One of God” (Mark 1:23-24). The demon says to Jesus, “ I know who you are.”
In the biblical world, to know someone’s name means to have some authority over him. Satan, saying I know who you are, does not want to glorify Jesus, but wants to suggest that he has power over Him. And Jesus shows His power. The evil spirit really exists, it is not an invention of a priest or the church.
There is truly a spiritual battle going on within us, between Jesus and his angelic army, and Satan and his devilish army. Nowadays, we often reduce evil to the fact that it is the absence of good, and the evil spirit in the Holy Scripture is a symbolic figure. However, the truth is completely different.
Jesus lives and really exists, just as the evil spirit really exists. The evil spirit does not want to be talked about or revealed. It prefers to live in the shadow and influence us in such a way that we call it bad luck, fate or misfortune.
Our hope for victory is in Jesus, which is why we must be like the crowd: “They were amazed at his teaching: for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.” (Mark 1:22). We are to be fascinated by Jesus. His word and life. Fascinated by discovering Him, accepting Him into our lives. That is why it is so important to develop your personal relationship with Jesus. This will protect us from evil. Only in this way will we defeat Satan. Satan flees from Jesus, bends his knee before Him. Jesus, as true God, has the power to win. If we live Him, we will also win, not with ourselves, but with Jesus.
We need a strong faith to be able to fight with the devil. I am always pleased to see your faith, especially when you bring your whole family to church on Sunday. We need this witness of faith and our commitment to the Lord. Our faith is important to all of us. We try to share this faith with others.
God calls us to be disciples of Christ. We as a parish family do a lot for those who seek Christ and need material help. We have many groups in our parish and we pray for those who are least fortunate. Our food pantry feeds many people from our area. That’s awesome. I am always pleased to see all of you working very hard for the Kingdom of God. This is our goal: to bring Christ closer to those who are far from the Church or maybe just got lost on the way.
We are all on the same journey of faith. Our parish is a blessing and we are a blessing for each other. When each of us does something for our parish it has a great impact on our community. We need to support each other and be there for each other. God is with us always. Let us be open to God’s grace in our lives.
I would like to encourage those who are interested in the trip to Poland to sign up. Please see me or Mecki Kosin to show your interest. We still have open places. It’s going to be a fun trip with great food. My pastor from my home parish, whose name is Boguslaw Czech, will be very happy to welcome you to my hometown and celebrate a Mass with the pilgrims in my parish church. I know my mom is excited also to get to know my parishioners who care about me and love me and want to travel the long distance to meet her. My mom is always thankful to God for my parishioners. She is very pleased that I am in good hands. Join me and our fellow parishioners in this great adventure!
Szczesc Boze! (God Bless You)
Father Rafal