(Homily 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Yr. B)
The readings of this Sunday are replete
with many themes for reflection, ranging from the disobedience of the first
parents, its consequences on Satan and man, the hope of eternal glory in all
tribulations, to the blasphemy against Jesus and his preferential option for
the will of God, which surpasses the power of human blood ties. In all, the
point that dovetails into the three readings is the latent call to choose and
prefer the will of God to the promptings of Satan. For indeed, there is an
eloquent presence of the evil one in the existential journey of believers in
Christ. But the Good News of today is
that in both the ordinary and extraordinary works of the Devil, Satan has been
defeated and in the midst of many tribulations, an incomparable eternal
weight of glory awaits us. Therefore, it is upon this moral-spiritual
consciousness that we are called to choose God’s will against Satan’s snare.
In the first reading (Gen. 3:9-15), we reckon with the emblematic reality of the
Original sin, which marked the dramatic origin of humanity. The quest to be
like God was the presumption of man at the beginning, the desire for an
absolute autonomy from God, the dream to be without Him. But the whole drama
turned against man, for he ended up as slave to Satan and thus, fell into the
deceptive hands of the tempter, who entered into the world as the “prince of
this world” (Jn. 14:30), in order to
terrorize the children of God. Consequently, man came out of that dramatic
situation divided and in struggle against each other. Adam accuses Eve, Eve
accuses Adam and the snake, and later Cain accused and eliminated Abel. And unfortunately, this chain of
accusation, hatred, division and envy has continued till today.
In today’s gospel (Mk. 3:20-35) St. Mark presented the ugly encounter of Jesus with
the scribes, who accused Jesus of being possessed by Beelzebul, and attributed
his mighty works and miracles to demon. “He is possessed by Beelzebul, and by
the prince of demons he casts out the demons” (Mk. 3:22). This biblically,
is one of the heaviest blasphemy against Jesus. The worst attack on Jesus is the consideration
that he was possessed by the devil. For it is not only an attack on his works
and the source of them, but regrettably on his person, as the Son of God. But
to their illogical way of reasoning, Jesus sought to help to reason a bit: “How
can Satan cast out Satan?” (Mk. 3:24).
And consequently, he told them: “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven
the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemies
against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilt of an eternal sin” (Mk. 3:28-29). This concept of
‘blasphemy against Holy Spirit’ is common in the synoptic gospel (cf. Mt. 12:22-32; Lk. 12:10). And one
may ask, what are the sins against the Holy Spirit? There are basically six
ways one can sin against the Holy Spirit: ●Despair:
that is when one cease to hope for his/her personal salvation from God, and for
help in attaining it or for forgiveness of one’s sins. ●Presumption of God’s mercy: the hope to save oneself without the
help of God and the hope to obtain God’s forgiveness without conversion. ●Watering down the known truth: this has
to do with attack on religious truths, by word or by argument, in order to
resist and contradict it or even to oppose it. ●Envy the spiritual good of another: it has to do with envying the
spiritual gifts of another, and it amounts to questioning the Divine judgment
of the Holy Spirit in his distribution of spiritual gifts. ●Obstinacy in sin: this has to do with
the resistance of the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, stubborn and persistent
in sin. ●Final impenitence: entails
remaining unrepentant, hardened without regret or remorse for one’s sins
In the second moment, Jesus demonstrates
that family for him is not just by blood, but by adherence to the will and
obedience to the Word of God. Jesus
broke the ties and circle of physical human relations, he broke the circle of
blood and race. He launched a new family, the family of God, the family of
those who are brothers, and sisters and friends not because they are born out
of the will of women or men, but because they are born out of God (cf.
Jn.1:13). Indeed, those that brought Jesus the news that his mother and his
relatives were looking for him to take him back to the house, gave Him the
opportunity to point out that family for him is beyond natural blood ties. For
he reacted immediately, “who are my mother and my brothers?’” (Mk.3:33). At first glance, the
response of Jesus gives the impression that he is unconcerned and somewhat
disrespectful towards his mother and relatives. In another passage Jesus
reacted apparently in a harsh way to the mother thus: “Woman, what do you want
from me? My hour has not come yet” (Jn.
2:4). But in reality he was neither disrespectful nor rude to them. For
with the affirmation: “He who does the will of God is my brother, my sister and
my mother” (Mk. 3:35), Jesus intends
here, to communicate that the ties of faith is stronger than the blood ties. For
the ties of faith is sealed by the blood
of Christ. It is the exercise of obedience to God’s will that makes us
closer to Him.
Behold, Jesus is the perfect model of
submission and the fulfilment of the will of the Father. In Jesus words: “Here
I am, I am coming, in the scroll of the book it is written of me, to do your
will, God” (Heb. 10:7). His gaze was
always fixed on the will of God, the
fulfilment of the Father’s will is the pillar of his existential program.
Little wonder, he affirmed: “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me,
and to complete his work” (Jn.4:34).
In fact, during the supreme moment of his trial, in the Garden of Olive, when
his human nature reckoned with the pains of the Passion, he exclaimed: “Abba,
Father! For you everything is possible. Take this cup away from me. But let it
be as you, not I, would have it” (Mk.
14:36). Obedience to the Father, the
fulfilment of the Father’s will synthesizes the life of Jesus. Indeed, St.
Paul captured it vividly well, “He was humbler yet, even to accepting death,
death on a cross. And for this God raised him high, and gave him the name which
is above all other names” (Phil. 2:8-9).
This manner of adherence to the Father’s will is what Jesus demands from his
disciples and from us too: “It is not anyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord”, who
will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father
in heaven” (Mt. 7:21).
The most
eloquent and perfect disciple of Jesus is the Mother, Mary, who is united to and
with Christ by means of family blood and at the same time with the most
profound tie of fulfilment of God’s will. She is the one very close to Jesus in a spiritual resemblance, not by somatic
traits but by total disposition to do the will of God. Indeed, from the
Annunciation to the Calvary, the life of Mary can be condensed in her fiat:
“Mary Said, You see before you Lord’s servant, let it happen to me as you have
said” (Lk. 1:38). ‘I am the handmaid
of the Lord’, as such, Mary declared herself willing and ready to do the will
of God.
Be that as it may, by means of this
perfect obedience to the Father, by Christ the Redeemer and Mary, we are
redeemed from the disobedience of Adam and Eve. Evil entered into the world
when they rebelled against God, when they sought for their complete autonomy
and independence, as it is evident in the first reading. Truly, contrary to the
disobedience of Adam and Eve that brought us death; rehabilitation and
redemption came through the obedience of Christ and Mary.
As such, the road of obedience becomes the
principal road that man has to follow, as a child of God and a disciple of
Christ. For when man distances himself from the will of God, to follow other
roads, he ends up in ruin. The
abandonment of the will of God in search of other egoistic, seductive and
individualistic projects leads man to his ruin, it takes him back to the
road of slavery and not of freedom. It is of course, obvious that sometimes it
is difficult and demanding to do the will of God (we cannot but find
inspiration with Christ who paid with his life). Indeed, it is a sacrifice that
redeems us, it is a fecund sacrifice.
A gaze back to the first reading reveals
that right from the beginning, God gives humanity a great message of salvation,
a good news, which anticipates the Gospel: “I shall put enmity between you and
the woman, and between your offspring and hers; it will bruise your head and
you will strike its heel” (Gen.3:15).
This promise was realized in and with the coming of Christ, in particular with
the event of his Passion, Death and Victorious Resurrection. Christ indeed, is the ‘most powerful Man’
that the Gospel talks about. Satan, the deceiver is by no means the Lord of
the world, he has been blocked and caged by “the Man” more powerful than him,
namely Christ. Sequel to this, Jesus posited at the imminence of his Passion:
“Now sentence is being passed on this world; now the prince of this world is to
be driven out” (Jn. 12:31). And we
have been made participants of the victory of Christ over Satan. Our liberation
was gained the day of our baptism, to say it with St. Paul: “It is he who has rescued
us from the ruling force of darkness and transferred
us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Col.
1:13). However, the struggle with and against the evil one is not yet over,
rather the fight is more arduous, the devil continues his devastating work and
plot against the children of light.
No doubt, the bible and the Gospel in
particular, affirm clearly the existence of Satan, the tempter. Contrarily, he
who says that Satan does not exist, is rendering him a service, and doing a disservice
to his life of grace and salvation. In fact, the tendency of negating the existence of the devil is itself, a
wonderful tactics of the Devil, so as to act undisturbed. On this, St. John
categorically declared: “This was the purpose of the appearing of the Son of God,
to undo the work of the Devil” (1Jn.
3:8). John traced the reason of the coming of Jesus to the fight against
Satan. No doubt, with this in view, Jesus sternly alerted his apostles thus:
“Look, Satan has got his wish to sift you all like wheat” (Lk.22:31). Therefore, we have to be vigilant and strong to resist
him. St. Peter admonished us thus: “keep sober and alert, because your enemy
the devil is on the prowl like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour” (1Pt. 5:8-9).We can protect ourselves
against the works of the Devil with the armour of prayer and the sacraments. The battle against the Devil remains always
open, and of course, it will end with our death, but we are consoled by the
word of God in Romans 8:37, as St.
Paul tells us “we come through all these things triumphantly victorious, by the
power of Him who loved us”. And interestingly, in the words of the second
reading, united with Christ, “the temporary, light burden of our hardships is
earning us forever an utterly incomparable, eternal weight of glory” (2Cor. 4:17).
The
second reading (2Cor. 4:13-5:1) is a
wonderful consideration of the hope of eternal glory that awaits God’s children,
and “that is why we do not waver” (2Cor.
4:16). And as such, we are
encouraged not to be weighed down by the present affliction that may come in
form of the ordinary and extraordinary works of the devil. St. Paul gives
us the reason to remain firm in the following words: “we look not to the things
that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen
are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2Cor. 4:18). Indeed, the phrase “we believe, and so we speak” (2Cor. 4:13) is predicated upon the
hope of what God will do for us in and through the resurrection of his Son,
Jesus Christ.
In all, the readings of today bring to our
consideration the fact that as far as we are in this world, we will encounter
many afflictions and temptations by the temper. However, the word of God
invites us to remain firm like Jesus to the Father’s will. For separated from
Him we can do nothing (Jn.15:5). And
this has to reflect in the choice we make, for or against God. To say it with
the Vatican Exorcist of blessed memory, Fr. Gabriele Amorth: “We must choose
between Satan’s snares and God’s promises. The first Adam chose Satan’s snare.
The second Adam, Christ, chose obedience to God” (An Exorcist, More Stories,
p.30). May God help us to choose his will and promises against the enticing
snares of Satan. Amen!
(Fr. Vitus
Chigozie, SC)
No comments:
Post a Comment