Fr. Francois Noah
TENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
The 10th Sunday of ordinary time suggests to us the challenge which Christ and God worshipers have to face in order to live out the Gospel. The family dynamic which was made to own Jesus led him to create and lay down the foundations of the new family. At the same time his opposition became radical to the point of ascribing his work to Beelzebub the chief of demons. The first reading and the Gospel have a common thread: sin makes people resist God’s will and kingdom; God even becomes repugnant for them. Genesis relates to us that after Adam and Eve have disobeyed God, not only they have disobeyed, they also have repulsion for everything that regards God.
The gospel presents two important themes which Jesus addresses: the family influence over him and the opposition of his contemporaries. The family notices that Jesus’s activities are going out of control. They try to recuperate and save that lost son of theirs. At the same time Jesus is takes that occasion in order to set the basis of the new family that he brings about which is based on living out God work and putting into practice God’s will. The new family Jesus is founding is no longer blood related, but based on people’s willingness to put into practice God’s word. It is universal and open to all tribes, all people, all races and nations. It is a “catholic” family in the original sense of the term.
The second theme of the Gospel is the opposition of the scribes who rejects all that Jesus does. They go as far as to attribute to the devil the power through which Jesus operates miracles. Jesus on one hand takes time to explain how it is not coherent that idea because Satan cannot fight against its own house. Otherwise it sows the seeds of his own destruction. On the other hand Jesus highlights how stubbornness can lead people as the case of the scribes to commit the unforgiven sin against the Holy Spirit, meaning to assign to God the evil and to Satan the Good. Moreover, this stubbornness closes the people’s ability to recognize God action in such a way that they are no longer open to the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. They refuse to acknowledge the good God is operating in Jesus’ life through the power of the Holy Spirit. That spirit of repugnance is the consequence of the original sin.
The first reading relates that Adam and Eve were in good term with God until they transgressed God’s prescription not to eat of the tree. As the disobedience was enacted, the repulsion and the repugnance of God became the guiding attitude of Adam and Eve in their relation with God. Adam accuses Eve of being responsible of the transgression while Eve does the same declining her own responsibility while accusing the serpent. This disobedience brought about consequences into the relation between the woman and serpent and their offspring. At the same time, it change the relationship between God and human, and finally between the man and the woman.
Today, these readings are calling us first, to build human family that goes beyond the blood related family, the tribe, nation and race or economy. The word of God becomes the binding thread of the new Christian family. In the second level, Jesus warn us against the stubbornness which closes all possibilities to the Holy spirit to help us convert and see God in action in the world. How do we treat the people who oppose? Are we so stubborn like the scribes who were determined to discredit everything Jesus did? Finally Jesus put the will of God first. What is the most important in our lives?
Lord Jesus help us to take part in the new family you initiated with your disciples based on Gospel and guide our faith to be open to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives and the lives of others so that we may confess our sin and let your spirit transform us . Amen.
TENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
The 10th Sunday of ordinary time suggests to us the challenge which Christ and God worshipers have to face in order to live out the Gospel. The family dynamic which was made to own Jesus led him to create and lay down the foundations of the new family. At the same time his opposition became radical to the point of ascribing his work to Beelzebub the chief of demons. The first reading and the Gospel have a common thread: sin makes people resist God’s will and kingdom; God even becomes repugnant for them. Genesis relates to us that after Adam and Eve have disobeyed God, not only they have disobeyed, they also have repulsion for everything that regards God.
The gospel presents two important themes which Jesus addresses: the family influence over him and the opposition of his contemporaries. The family notices that Jesus’s activities are going out of control. They try to recuperate and save that lost son of theirs. At the same time Jesus is takes that occasion in order to set the basis of the new family that he brings about which is based on living out God work and putting into practice God’s will. The new family Jesus is founding is no longer blood related, but based on people’s willingness to put into practice God’s word. It is universal and open to all tribes, all people, all races and nations. It is a “catholic” family in the original sense of the term.
The second theme of the Gospel is the opposition of the scribes who rejects all that Jesus does. They go as far as to attribute to the devil the power through which Jesus operates miracles. Jesus on one hand takes time to explain how it is not coherent that idea because Satan cannot fight against its own house. Otherwise it sows the seeds of his own destruction. On the other hand Jesus highlights how stubbornness can lead people as the case of the scribes to commit the unforgiven sin against the Holy Spirit, meaning to assign to God the evil and to Satan the Good. Moreover, this stubbornness closes the people’s ability to recognize God action in such a way that they are no longer open to the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. They refuse to acknowledge the good God is operating in Jesus’ life through the power of the Holy Spirit. That spirit of repugnance is the consequence of the original sin.
The first reading relates that Adam and Eve were in good term with God until they transgressed God’s prescription not to eat of the tree. As the disobedience was enacted, the repulsion and the repugnance of God became the guiding attitude of Adam and Eve in their relation with God. Adam accuses Eve of being responsible of the transgression while Eve does the same declining her own responsibility while accusing the serpent. This disobedience brought about consequences into the relation between the woman and serpent and their offspring. At the same time, it change the relationship between God and human, and finally between the man and the woman.
Today, these readings are calling us first, to build human family that goes beyond the blood related family, the tribe, nation and race or economy. The word of God becomes the binding thread of the new Christian family. In the second level, Jesus warn us against the stubbornness which closes all possibilities to the Holy spirit to help us convert and see God in action in the world. How do we treat the people who oppose? Are we so stubborn like the scribes who were determined to discredit everything Jesus did? Finally Jesus put the will of God first. What is the most important in our lives?
Lord Jesus help us to take part in the new family you initiated with your disciples based on Gospel and guide our faith to be open to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives and the lives of others so that we may confess our sin and let your spirit transform us . Amen.