The Gospel tells how Jesus taught His audience with authority unlike the Scribes and Pharisees who came before Him. To teach with authority is to demonstrate that everything comes from Him and not appealing to any outside authority to convince His audience as done by the Scribes and Pharisees of His day. This finds confirmation in the first reading of today when Moses spoke to the people saying the Lord says, “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kin, and will put my words into his mouth, he shall tell them all that I command him.”

One remarkable feature in Mark’s Gospel is that the first time ever we hear Jesus speak. His words were “This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.” This shows Jesus came to reconcile us with the father and be at peace with him. Reconciliation and peace are achievable through repentance and belief in Jesus who has come to save us. Similarly, the message of repentance and reconciliation is also what we see in today’s first reading from the book of Jonah. The Lord orders Jonah to go to Nineveh, capital of Assyria and preach repentance to the Ninevites.

The call of Samuel, in the first reading, demonstrates how God calls each of us individually. Just like Samuel who was unaware of God’s call at the beginning, we too may be unaware when God is calling us but with patience, steadfastness, focus, and an open heart we can recognize His voice in our lives. Just as Eli pointed out to Samuel that it was God calling him so too, we can recognize God’s voice when we pay attention and listen to our parents, teachers, priests and those God has placed to look after us.

Today, being the feast of Epiphany, we celebrate Jesus the incarnate word being revealed to all the nations of the world. The Church calls it, the feast of appearance or manifestation of the Lord. Epiphany comes from the Greek word and means “Manifestation”. The Church celebrates the light of God’s revelation of his Son as human in Jesus Christ. The story of the magi is the story of the ways in which God reveals Himself to us and even more about the different responses and reaction this revelation receives. The Lord of the universe who reveals the star of Bethlehem to the Gentiles of the East gives each one of us the same light of revelation to recognize and accept Jesus as Our Lord and Savior.