Living the Word - THE TENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Rarely in the Roman Calendar do we get to celebrate a 10 ^th Sunday in Ordinary Time.  Remarkably, it seems that it has been more than 20 years since today’s Gospel (Mk 3:20-35) was proclaimed at a Sunday liturgy.  Hopefully you listened carefully, because we can all agree that each word of every Gospel is God’s word spoken to us.  It would be a shame to miss something important!

The setting is that Jesus has returned home to Capernaum after choosing His 12 apostles.  Still somewhat early in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus has nonetheless been busy; preaching, healing, and casting out demons.  Crowds are beginning to follow Him.   Yes, Jesus is attracting crowds, and it is probably this aspect of His ministry that precipitates the two trials He undergoes in this Gospel.

The less surprising challenge is waged by the Jerusalem scribes who have been the most adamant opponents of Jesus thus far.  They claim that Jesus is possessed by Beelzebub, and through this prince of demons, is casting out demons.  Jesus rather easily disputes the absurdity of this charge by asking “How can Satan drive out Satan?”  The arguably more heart-wrenching trial is brought by Jesus’ relatives who, fearing that He is out of His mind, come to restrain Him in His ministry or take Him back to Nazareth where He will be safe.  When told that His mother, brothers and sisters are outside, Jesus responded by asking “Who are my mother and my brothers?” Secure in Himself in God, Jesus stood firm, able to dismantle the false claims of the scribes and His relatives.

Neither the scribes nor Jesus’ family see who Jesus really is.  Or choose not to see.  They are blinded by their selfish desires; the scribes to retain their position in Jewish society, the relatives to keep their loved One safe and perhaps their reputations secure.  Jesus almost always goes too far for all of us!  Although their intentions differ, both, while witnessing Good, see evil.  This willful blindness, this failure to acknowledge Truth, places both of them outside Jesus’ true family, which seeks only to join Him in doing the will of God, regardless of the cost.  

We also insult God and place ourselves outside His family when we willfully see evil where there is Good.  We are like the scribes in our self-serving criticisms of one another, in our resistance to seeking peace, and in our failure to collaborate with or acknowledge the gifts of our co-workers, family, and fellow parishioners.  We are like the relatives when we hold our children and friends back from fully becoming themselves, when we feign neediness, or simply live in fear.  We are like both of them when, driven by our fears, insecurities, ego and jealousies, we turn the other into a cardboard image to fit our vision.  We are like both of them when we choose to disregard the truth about Jesus, ourselves, and others.

Jesus warns His listeners against these sins.  It is a warning against intractable blindness and hard-heartedness that divides and corrodes.  Don’t’ wait until the next time we celebrate a 10 ^th Sunday in Ordinary Time.  Let our house, through the mercy of God, be undivided as we open our hearts to one another to fulfill God’s will for us, our families, and for St. Angela’s.