In the Scriptures we frequently hear mention of the city of Capernaum, it was on the north west shore of the sea of Galilee and was the centre of Jesus' activities in Galilee. It is in the synagogue that Mark describes the first public act of Jesus and we hear that Jesus is powerful in both word and deed.
On the Sabbath the service in the Synagogue would feature prayers, Scripture readings and teachings in fact our Liturgy of the Word follows a similar pattern. Anyone with sufficient learning would be invited to teach as there was no need for Rabbinic "ordination" in the time of Jesus.
The Scribes based their teaching on the Scriptures but we hear that the teaching of Jesus was 'new', so Jesus' style would have been more direct and confident of his own authority because when Jesus spoke about God he was speaking about a God he called Abba.
While Jesus did heal the man passed by a demon, he shows that he is not merely a wonder worker because of the authority of his teaching. The demon objects to Jesus' meddling in the domain of evil. The coming of God's kingdom would spell the end of the demon's power and the demon recognises Jesus' identity and his significance for the coming kingdom.
The fact that Jesus cures the possessed man by word alone indicates the power of God's incarnate Word, Jesus. You and I are exposed to the power of God's word every time we read or listen to the Scriptures. We can thank the teachings of the Second Vatican Council for the greater significance Catholics now place on the Scriptures. To be denied God's Word would make us a "people who live in darkness".
When we live in the darkness of secularism we can be possessed by various demons - uncontrollable urges to participate in addictions or activities that shrink the life out of us and can turn us into bitter, angry, frightened and anxious people. Addictions to drugs, to alcohol, to power, to materialism, to consumerism, to gossip, to vindictive behaviour, all deny us the openness needed to be Christ's disciples.
It is worth considering what it is that we need to be liberated from and ask God to free us, so that when we interact with people they encounter a person of peace, a person of love, a person of hope, a person who makes them wonder what it is that makes us different. The answer would be found in the liberation that God gives us when we open ourselves to God's incredible love.
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