Post-feast of the Transfiguration; Holy Confessor Emilian, Bishop of Cyzicus (815)
Dormition Fast. Abstinence from meat and foods that contain meat.
Read
2 Corinthians 6:11-16; Mark 1:23-28
In today’s Gospel the evangelist Mark presented to us, the first work of the Lord, in a Sabbath, in a synagogue, in Capernaum, where, “He taught as One having authority, and not as the scribes” (Mk. 1:22). There He casts out an unclean spirit, after rebuking it and rejecting its testimonial to Him. One could ask, “Why did St. Mark start with that miracle, in his presentation of the works of the Lord?” It is quite clear that Saint Mark intended to proclaim that the Lord Christ is a unique Teacher, to whom His listeners themselves, amazed by His teaching, bear witness, saying; “What new doctrine is this?” The scribes explained the Law in the synagogue every Sabbath, used human words. Even when they uttered divine words, they did it out of a dry and an empty soul. On the contrary, Lord Christ, being the Word of God, attracts the soul, “piercing even to the division of soul and Spirit (Heb. 4:12). As St. Cyril the Great said: “They saw before them, a teacher who addresses them, not like a mere prophet, but as a supreme God to whom, the Spirit before the body prostrates, the Lord of the Law.”
