Growing up, my brother was quite a handful. He was a headache to our parents. I served as a bridge between them so they would understand each other. In high school, he escaped from his dorm room and got kicked out. In college, he caused my parents to move him to another school nearer to home to avoid bad influence.

Once, he was on a ferry and was so discouraged. I was afraid for his life. He remained my brother in the midst of it all, an object of my prayer petitions. Nowadays, he is much more settled. He graduated engineering and now earns very well. He generously gives to family and friends. He remains my brother, whom I call regularly. We’re like friends sharing stories from both past and present, cementing love and friendship. 

Jesus is that kind of brother to each one of us, whether we are acting up or have settled down. Let’s be the same to others. Joyce Roa (jsosoban@gmail.com)

reflect

Is there anyone in your life whom you can be a good brother or sister to? What can you do today to show you care?

Dearest Lord, thank You for calling me Your sibling, sinner that I am. Forgive me for my sinful ways. Help me to be a good brother or sister to others. Amen.

St. Felix of Nola, pray for us.

Mankind is next to nothing compared to God. However, we are also the pinnacle of creation. There’s an element of mystery surrounding God’s love, thus placing it beyond our full understanding. This is good because if we can fully understand His love, we might become more arrogant than we actually are.

⁵ It was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. ⁶ Instead, someone has testified somewhere: What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you care for him? ⁷ You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor, ⁸ subjecting all things under his feet. In “subjecting” all things to him, he left nothing not “subject to him.” Yet at present we do not see “all things subject to him,” ⁹ but we do see Jesus “crowned with glory and honor” because he suffered death, he who “for a little while” was made “lower than the angels,” that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. ¹⁰ For it was fitting that he, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the leader to their salvation perfect through suffering. ¹¹ He who consecrates and those who are being consecrated all have one origin. Therefore, he is not ashamed to call them “brothers,” ¹² saying: “I will proclaim your name to my brethren, in the midst of the assembly I will praise you.”

Responsorial Psalm | Psalm 8:2, 5, 6-7, 8-9

R: You have given your Son rule over the works of your hands.

² O Lord, our Lord, how glorious is your name over all the earth! ⁵ What is man that you should be mindful of him, or the son of man that you should care for him? (R) ⁶ You have made him little less than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honor. ⁷ You have given him rule over the works of your hands, putting all things under his feet. (R) ⁸ All sheep and oxen, yes, and the beasts of the field, ⁹ The birds of the air, the fishes of the sea, and whatever swims the paths of the seas. (R)

Gospel | Mark 1:21-28

Immediately, after calling His Apostles, Jesus begins to perform miracles. Mark places everything before the reader so they can clearly understand the identity of Jesus. This is important to the structure of his Gospel: Here, the identity of Jesus as Messiah is seemingly hidden from the characters in the Gospel. Mark’s idea of faith is it makes visible the invisible things of God. Faith is a way of knowing. Let us pray that the Holy Spirit will help us grow in our faith.

Gospel Acclamation

Receive the word of God, not as the word of men, but as it truly is, the word of God.

²¹ Jesus came to Capernaum with his followers, and on the sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught. ²² The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. ²³ In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit; ²⁴ he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” ²⁵ Jesus rebuked him and said, “Quiet! Come out of him!” ²⁶ The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him. ²⁷ All were amazed and asked one another, “What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.” ²⁸ His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.

Read the Bible in one year! Read MATTHEW 9 - 12 today.

I have been counseling a woman whose biggest problem was compulsive buying. If you look at her closet, you will see that 50 percent of her clothes are still wrapped in plastic with their price tags. She has not worn most of them even once.

She had vowed to cut down on her binge buying and save her money instead. After three months, she was back to her old ways. “I think I know the problem,” I told her. “You tried to control the binge buying, but did not replace it with something concrete.” I told her to set aside her extra money and give it to charity regularly. It worked. The compulsive buying was channeled to purposive giving. Now, every time she receives her paycheck, she thinks of the people who will be benefitting from her charity. And that makes her feel better about herself.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus commands an impure spirit to come out from a possessed man. But there is a spiritual physics involved here. If the man does not reclaim the space of the impure spirit with a good one, chances are, the same spirit will come back and occupy the vacuum. Jesus Himself pointed out the principle. In other parts of the Scripture, Jesus said, “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first” (Matthew 12:43-45).

It is not enough to just stop a vice. Nature abhors a vacuum. We need to replace the vice with virtue. Fr. Joel Jason

reflection question

This 2025, did you make a resolution to stop a bad habit? Do not just end the vice. Begin a new virtue. Then, your new year will give rise to a new you!

Impure spirits, be banished. Spirit of God, dwell in its place. Amen.

Today, I pray for: ____________________________________________