TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY "B"

TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

Cycle “B” Mark 9,39-43; 45, 47-48

 

“Anyone who is not against us is for us.” I think Jesus is very liberal and has made the way to him wide and simple. To be on Jesus’ side, all you need do is not to be against him. You can be a Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, even an atheist, and yet not be against Jesus. And that is enough to be on his side. Putting the case more positively in India, there are millions of non-Christians who love Jesus personally without being Christian in the formal sense. Even more, it is enough to be a good human being to have the grace of Jesus. Giving a cup of water is not special to Christians. It is the act of a good human being. Being born into humanity is already to be in touch with Jesus Christ. St. John says in Chapter I, verse 9 of his Gospel: “The Word was the real light that gives light to everyone.” Everyone, not only Christians. And the Vatican Council states it very strongly: “...the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being made partners in the Paschal Mystery, in a way known to God.” Note the language: not merely recipients of the mystery but partners in it.

At the same time, be it noted, the way to Christ is not “roses, roses all the way, and myrtle mixed in my path like mad,” as the poem goes. The way to Christ is the way of the cross, avoidance of sin, the pattern of self-denial in thought, word and deed. In today’s 2^nd. reading, St. James berates those who are attached to their material wealth: “All your gold,” says St. James, “and your silver are corroding away, and the same corrosion will be your own sentence, and eat into your body.” Reminds me of the conversation between two rich and mean misers. One miser was dying and the other sat at his bedside. The dying one said,”What’s going to happen to all my money and gold and silver ornaments?” The other miser replied, “I’m afraid where you are going to they will all melt.”  As the alliterated sentence goes: “The path to perdition is paved with pilfered possessions.”

But people of faith sit lightly to their possessions, so they’re prepared to leave it all when the summons comes. They depart lightly on angels wings. My best author, G.K. Chesterton wrote: “Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.” When we allow the Holy Spirit to take possession of our bodies, we too can enjoy that lightsomeness of mind and body. As an example of joyous detachment, take St. Thomas More. Thomas More’s death sentence, by a perverse and petulant King Henry VIII, did nothing to dampen his gaiety. During his last days, while in prison and suffering from his old disease of the chest  -  gravel, stone, and the cramp  -  he habitually joked with his family and friends, whenever they were permitted to see him, as merrily as the old days of Chelsea. When it came time for him to ascend the executioner’s scaffold, it was discovered that its structure was so weak that it seemed ready to collapse. Turning to the man assisting him, Thomas More remarked, “I pray you, I pray, Mr. Lieutenant, see me safe up, as for coming down let me shift for myself.” After kneeling and saying prayers, he then turned to the executioner and, with a cheerful countenance spoke to him: “Pluck up thy spirits, man, and be not afraid to do thine office. My neck is very short. And let me move aside my beard for it has done no wrong. Take heed therefore thou strike not awry for saving thine honour.”  A single stroke of the axe, and More’s head bounced merrily away.

 

But coming back to today’s Gospel. It is not everything that we can take lightly; surely not sin  -  our sin and the world’s. And there’s still plenty of it around. Jesus’ words about sin are very forceful, but he was not trying to frighten his hearers into self-mutilation as a way of rooting out sins. Taking Jesus’ words literally would find parishioners landing up for Sunday Mass in ambulances and wheelchairs, with limbs and eyes removed. Jesus was only making a point about the seriousness of sin, its consequences and its radical removal. He is particularly strong against the sins of scandal, i.e. leading the innocent into sin by advice, example or intimacy. How seriously Jesus himself took sin was shown by his dying on the Cross. The nature of the remedy shows how serious the problem is. Jesus is not being excessive in words; only realistic.

 

 And yet today’s Gospel is not to be read in isolation. Without condoning our sins, he loves and accepts us, leading us to repentance and to God. When Jesus exhorts us to give up sin, he is not leaving us to ourselves. He is always there, the merciful one, for the many times we fail.

We must be realistic but also hopeful and lightsome. Keep in mind the hopeful line of today: “If anyone is not against me, he is with me.”

 PRAYER: (Fr. Michel Quoist)

My sins, Lord, are dulling my conscience.

I get used to evil very quickly:

A little self-indulgence here,

A small unfaithfulness there,

An unwise action farther on,

And my vision becomes obscured,

I no longer see stumbling blocks,

I no longer see other people on my road

Lord, I beseech you, keep me young in my efforts,

Spare me the bondage of habit,

Which lulls to sleep and kills.