Sometimes when people ask us, “How was your day?”, we simply reply “It was just an ordinary day!”.  Nevertheless, when one thinks about it, every day is different.  We observe different things; we say and hear different words.  We meet different people, in fact, as the song says, “life is a cabaret”.

The picture that St Mark endeavours to paint in his Gospel story about Jesus is not so much a chronology but a series of snap-shots about certain days in the earthly life of Jesus.

Today’s Gospel story is often described as a “specimen” or “sample” of a day in the life of Jesus.  Of course every day in His life, like every day in your life and my life, is different.  Nevertheless, the day that St Mark describes in this first chapter of his story is as extraordinary as it is typical.

It is a day He spends in the fishing village called Caphernaum – A simple and typical Jewish village.  It was as simple and as typical as the place where we usually spend a day.

Yet, it was in that typical and familiar place that Jesus revealed the power of goodness over evil.  His profound goodness is pitted against the powers of evil through his words and actions he teaches that goodness will always triumph.

It is only in this Gospel, written by St Mark, that Jesus is said to “teach”.  His teaching is much more than imparting knowledge; He is sharing the Good News, challenging everyone to the depths of their beings to understand that goodness (namely; love, peace and justice) always defeats evil (Namely: hatred, violence and exploitation).

It is this understanding about the power of “goodness” that we are invited to embrace every day, no matter how ordinary or typical we expect our day to be.