SCRIPTURE:
1ST Reading: Numbers 11:25-29
2nd Reading: James 5:1-6
Gospel: Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48
Wow!!! Did you really hear what Jesus was saying to us in today’s Gospel from Mark? Does it put that feeling into the pit of your stomach that says, ” I’d better pay attention to what Jesus is saying to me or I will be in deep trouble!!”
What is Jesus saying to us? Let me refresh your memory. Put a great Millstone around our neck only to be thrown into the sea? Cut off our hand? It is better for us to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna? Cut off our foot or go to Gehenna? Pluck out our eye or go to that place again, called Gehenna, where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched? What the heck is Gehenna, anyway? Holy Cow, I don’t want any of this! Would you?
We must not take these words of Jesus literally but with fervent attention, to take a good look at our lives and what we are doing with it! The point Jesus is making here is that sin and especially mortal sin is to be avoided at any cost. We ought to be prepared to go to any length in order to eliminate evil from our lives.
His aim was to impress indelibly, deep within each of us, that the kingdom of God is worth any sacrifice and we must not try to stop anyone from talking about it, in His name. You will see how this fits in to what else Jesus wants us to hear.
Jesus talked about hell and referred it to Gehenna, a real geographical place. Gehenna was a ravine south of Jerusalem where refuse and waste was dumped and burned. For all practical purposes, it was a nasty smelly dump with its creatures of insects and worms and a fire that never went out.
As a site of ill-omen it came to symbolize the place of future punishment, HELL! Sounds like a place for sin. Sin, in a way, is a disconnect from God and his love, however it is worth our efforts, no matter how drastic they might seem, to stay the course by living a sinless life and opening ourselves to hear his words.
You know, sometimes we become so narrow minded that we think we have the only way to heaven and that certain selected people were the only ones who were allowed to prophesy about the kingdom and how we get there. Sounds like the attitudes that came out of the 50’s and 60’s and it seems like the attitudes that the Apostles were starting to feel.
As we heard in the Gospel, the Apostles came upon a man, not of their “circle of friends” who was driving out demons in the name of Jesus. They tried to stop him. Why? Because they were jealous of their special relationship with Jesus and that they were the ones who were to continue the work of Jesus. Sounds like Joshua in our first reading who tried to get Moses to put a stop to Eldad and Medad from prophesying in the camp.
Some of us can remember the narrow minded attitudes held towards Christians of other denominations prior to Vatican ll. But what does Jesus say to the Apostles, “Do not stop him.” The fact the this man was acting in Jesus’ name meant that he was not against them. So, Jesus gave a lesson in openness and tolerance.
Perhaps he was also telling them to be careful not to limit God’s Spirit. The Spirit and mission of God were not to be claimed exclusively by the Twelve Apostles, but would be shared with many.
All of our prayers are said, and all of our sacraments are conferred and all our liturgies are offered in the name and power of Jesus. However, we as Catholics have no monopoly on Jesus. There is no logic that could say that Jesus cannot have a relationship with other people from other Christian faiths. That is at the heart of what we call “Ecumenism”.
I have witnessed some people who felt threatened by the God given gifts and achievements of others. If they only had a more open attitude they would find themselves enriched rather than diminished by those gifts and achievements. The person who is different from us does not diminish us but enriches us.
Here are a few that you might know an one you might not: -Alexander Graham Bell and the telephone – Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison discovered ways to use elecrtricity – Carl Benz-for the modern automobile – Martin Luther King for equality – Billy Graham for his preaching – Blessed Pope John Paul II for his kindness and gentleness for all God’s people through Evangelization and Tom Ingle for praising God because of a piece of bread he received while living on the streets of Seattle.
We can acknowledge the gifts of others where ever they appear. We usually witness and receive the blessings that come forth from the gifts of others and we experience this in places we least expect- in our workplace, at the grocery store, a neighbor, on our city streets. It is like experiencing God in unexpected places-in the face of the poor and the marginalized, who are God’s little ones.
But if we are in the state of sin or we cause another to sin because of our prejudice, how can we be influenced, how can our lives change for the better through these encounters? It is better for us to be marginalized and praise our God than to have it all and not love and help our neighbor.
Those who have such gifts, especially those who are preaching the Good News in Jesus Christ, those preaching the Good News that God is a loving, merciful, and forgiving God, do affect us. We will miss out on God’s providence if we keep our minds and hearts closed to those who are different from us. We will miss out on the blessings that come from the greater Church which does not discriminate.
In the Spirit of Ecumenism, we must join our sisters and brothers in Christ. We must not stop those who are speaking and prophesying the Good News of Jesus Christ who are not members of our faith community, but to encourage them in the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave His life for all of us and who gives His body and blood in sacrifice to God the Father and to us and who still is prophesying the reign of God from His heavenly throne from which he has set a place for each of us.
And so, I ask you, do you have that feeling in the pit of your stomach? Jesus challenges us in a very drastic and graphic way in today’s gospel. Will we be frightened by what we have heard, or will we open our minds and hearts to receive those words through others and to keep free from sin so that we can receive the blessings that come from them?
We don’t have to pluck out an eye or cut off a hand or foot, but we do have to cut off or at least try to curb those things which lead us to sin, whether it be alcohol, internet porn, too much ambition, too great a love of money. None of these things will help us get into God’s kingdom, so we must work on it in a healthy, positive way.
Jesus has sent the spirit to us all. Let us be open to those who by the power of the Spirit are speaking in the name of Jesus and let us, by the power of the Spirit in us, accept and love all of God’s children, wherever we find and hear them.
Saturday only: And so we gather around this altar tonight to witness the sacrament of Baptism for the Flores children. Let us be open to experience and be changed by the words in this sacramental liturgy as we are changed by the words and actions of the Mass. Let us gain the strength to overcome sin as we recall our own baptismal promises.