By Fr. Paul D. Scalia, The Catholic Thing - Today’s Gospel (Mark 1:21-28) tells us that the people were “astonished” and “amazed.” They were “astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.” They “were amazed and asked one another, ‘What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.’”