Deut 18:15-20 / 1 Cor 7:32-35 / Mark 1:21-28
There was (and there still is) a practice in the Church of the blessing of throats, although not much emphasis is given to it.
It falls on the day after the feast of the Presentation, which is on the 2nd February.
So on the 3rd February, which is the feast day of St. Blaise, there is a blessing of throats, in which the invocation is made to the intercession of St. Blaise for the blessing.
The candles blessed on the feast of the Presentation, which is the day before, is made into a shape of a cross and placed over the throat as the priest says the prayer of blessing.
The purpose of the blessing is for the protection against any physical ailment of the throat, and hence those who use their voice often should come for the blessing.
It is usually quite a solemn occasion as the faithful come up individually and the priest cross the candles and invokes the blessing.
It is usually solemn until the boys come up, and boys being boys, will try to act silly and hold their throats after the blessing as if they were choking, and of course the priest will stare at them.
Whatever the boys or others think of it, the blessing is more than just to ask for protection against throat diseases or throat ailments.
It is also to sanctify the throat and to protect it against spiritual ailments like speaking profanity, cursing and gossiping.
Because, as Scripture says, if anyone claims to be religious but don't control his tongue, he is fooling yourself, and his religion is worthless (James 1:26).
That’s the purpose of the blessing of throats and also to make us more aware of what comes out of our mouths.
In the gospel, we heard that Jesus went to the synagogue and began to teach and His teaching made a deep impression because He taught with authority.
In other words, what came out of His mouth were words of truth spoken with love and that brought the people closer to God.
But in the same gospel passage, we also heard from a man who was possessed by an evil spirit and it was shouting.
Actually it was shouting out a truth, but it spoke the truth, not with love, but with anger and hatred.
Yes, Jesus is the Holy One of God. Yes, Jesus came to destroy evil.
All that is true, and confronted with the Truth and by the Truth, evil which is the source of all lies reacts with anger and hatred.
In the face of such hostility, Jesus had only this to say: Be quiet! Come out of him!
Those few words of Jesus are indeed words of truth and spoken with authority.
The evil spirit is ordered to be silent and with that it is expelled out of the man.
What happened in the gospel passage is indeed very relevant to us.
Of course we are not possessed by any kind of evil spirit. But we cannot deny that that evil lurks somewhere inside of us.
Evil can lurk inside of us because of sin. Sin creates an opening for evil to enter and sin then continues to fester.
And sin and evil then create a turmoil within us and from within us profanity, cursing, gossip and harmful words come out of our mouths.
And to all the turmoil that is in us, Jesus commands with these words – Be quiet!
To be quiet is to be still. As God says in the psalms – Be still and know that I am God.
We will remember that Jesus ordered the winds and the waves to be still when the disciples in the boat were caught in the storm.
Those winds and waves are not out there but in our hearts and stirring up a storm.
To these winds and waves of the heart, Jesus is commanding – Be quiet! Be still!
Much has been said about opening our mouths and saying the wrong things and creating unnecessary storms.
We need to remember to open our minds before opening our mouths.
We need to open our minds and our hearts to hear those words of Jesus: Be quiet!
Yes, we need to quieten our minds and hearts and to be still and to know that Jesus is the Holy One of God who comes to bring us peace.
It is with His peace that we will realize that as much as we use our tongues to praise the Lord, we also use it to speak profanities and harmful words, and that is certainly wrong.
May we listen to the command of Jesus to be quiet and to let our minds and hearts be still and to be at peace.
When we are at peace, then we will speak the truth with love.
And may what comes out of our mouths be a blessing for others.