Fr. Patrick Santianez, s.x
XXVIth SUNDAY IN O. T. YEAR B
There’s a story about a prisoner who was generously donating his body organs outside the prison. First, he donated one of his kidneys, then his eye, then an arm and a leg. The chief warden became suspicious and grumbled: “Hey, you are trying to escape by installments!” In the gospel of this XXVI Sunday in Ordinary Time, Jesus talks about bodily mutilation. “If your hand or foot should cause you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life crippled, than to have two hands or feet and go to hell.” (cf. Mark 9:43). Do we need to cut off parts of our body?
Jesus in this gospel corrects the mentality 0f Joshua in the First reading and of John in the Gospel story. The mentality of “let us cut off people who don’t belong to our group". In the First reading, we find Joshua who was jealous. He thought that the Holy Spirit should be given only to those who were attending the gathering for the outpouring of the Spirit of prophecy, but he saw Eldad and Medad actually prophesying in the Spirit, despite that they were not present in the Tent of Meeting. Joshua asked Moses to stop Eldad and Medad from prophesying because they were not in their group. Joshua wanted to put limits to God, but God cannot be limited. God could cross the lines that were so neatly drawn in the minds of Joshua and the Israelites regarding where God could or could not operate. But Moses knew the situation better. He smiled and said to Joshua, “Are you jealous for my sake? How I wish all God’s people were prophets and that God would pour his Spirit on them all!” (Numbers 11:29).
In the Gospel, the attitude of Joshua is repeated in John. John told Jesus: “we saw a man who is not one of us casting out devils in your name; and because he was not one of us, we tried to stop him”. “Because he was not one of us”! “Because he does not belong to OUR group”. Paraphrasing the words of John means only our group has the right to use your name. It means: only our group must be empowered to use your name to expel demons, to do good and to liberate those who are suffering and sick.
Jesus, the new Moses, told John not to stop the person. If he uses Jesus’ name to do good, then he is not against Jesus. He said, “You must not stop him: no one who works a miracle in my name is likely to speak evil of me. Anyone who is not against us, is for us.” Instead of cutting off people, Jesus pointed out to John two categories of people who were to be cut off. First, those people who lead others astray, not those who are doing good in Jesus’ name. Secondly, Jesus told his disciples to cut off from themselves what leads to sin. “If your hand should cause you to sin, cut it off”; “If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off”; “If your eye should cause you to sin, cut it off”. Jesus is not advocating physical mutilation, but he is stressing spiritual mutilation. To remove something from their hearts that leads them far from God and makes them an occasion for others to go far from Him.
I will end my sharing with an experience. Last year St. Conforti Parish organized an Ebola Team to help people in quarantine within the parish. We added in our little ways to the food that the government and the different NGO’s were giving to people in quarantine. We didn’t pick whom to help. We helped everybody. One Muslim man, who was in a quarantine house, thanked us on behalf of his family for all the help we have rendered to them during their 21 day ordeal. Like a typical Sierra Leonean, this man started to preach. My first reaction was not to listen because he was preaching about God and about Jesus Christ, quoting from the Holy Qur’an. Just like John, I wanted to stop him from preaching to me To my surprise, it turned out that he lectured me about God' love. He said, “God loves us. Allah loves us all. But the love of Allah passes through human beings. This time his love passes through these two Fathers and reaches here in our family”.
“Anyone who is not against us is for us”.
XXVIth SUNDAY IN O. T. YEAR B
There’s a story about a prisoner who was generously donating his body organs outside the prison. First, he donated one of his kidneys, then his eye, then an arm and a leg. The chief warden became suspicious and grumbled: “Hey, you are trying to escape by installments!” In the gospel of this XXVI Sunday in Ordinary Time, Jesus talks about bodily mutilation. “If your hand or foot should cause you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life crippled, than to have two hands or feet and go to hell.” (cf. Mark 9:43). Do we need to cut off parts of our body?
Jesus in this gospel corrects the mentality 0f Joshua in the First reading and of John in the Gospel story. The mentality of “let us cut off people who don’t belong to our group". In the First reading, we find Joshua who was jealous. He thought that the Holy Spirit should be given only to those who were attending the gathering for the outpouring of the Spirit of prophecy, but he saw Eldad and Medad actually prophesying in the Spirit, despite that they were not present in the Tent of Meeting. Joshua asked Moses to stop Eldad and Medad from prophesying because they were not in their group. Joshua wanted to put limits to God, but God cannot be limited. God could cross the lines that were so neatly drawn in the minds of Joshua and the Israelites regarding where God could or could not operate. But Moses knew the situation better. He smiled and said to Joshua, “Are you jealous for my sake? How I wish all God’s people were prophets and that God would pour his Spirit on them all!” (Numbers 11:29).
In the Gospel, the attitude of Joshua is repeated in John. John told Jesus: “we saw a man who is not one of us casting out devils in your name; and because he was not one of us, we tried to stop him”. “Because he was not one of us”! “Because he does not belong to OUR group”. Paraphrasing the words of John means only our group has the right to use your name. It means: only our group must be empowered to use your name to expel demons, to do good and to liberate those who are suffering and sick.
Jesus, the new Moses, told John not to stop the person. If he uses Jesus’ name to do good, then he is not against Jesus. He said, “You must not stop him: no one who works a miracle in my name is likely to speak evil of me. Anyone who is not against us, is for us.” Instead of cutting off people, Jesus pointed out to John two categories of people who were to be cut off. First, those people who lead others astray, not those who are doing good in Jesus’ name. Secondly, Jesus told his disciples to cut off from themselves what leads to sin. “If your hand should cause you to sin, cut it off”; “If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off”; “If your eye should cause you to sin, cut it off”. Jesus is not advocating physical mutilation, but he is stressing spiritual mutilation. To remove something from their hearts that leads them far from God and makes them an occasion for others to go far from Him.
I will end my sharing with an experience. Last year St. Conforti Parish organized an Ebola Team to help people in quarantine within the parish. We added in our little ways to the food that the government and the different NGO’s were giving to people in quarantine. We didn’t pick whom to help. We helped everybody. One Muslim man, who was in a quarantine house, thanked us on behalf of his family for all the help we have rendered to them during their 21 day ordeal. Like a typical Sierra Leonean, this man started to preach. My first reaction was not to listen because he was preaching about God and about Jesus Christ, quoting from the Holy Qur’an. Just like John, I wanted to stop him from preaching to me To my surprise, it turned out that he lectured me about God' love. He said, “God loves us. Allah loves us all. But the love of Allah passes through human beings. This time his love passes through these two Fathers and reaches here in our family”.
“Anyone who is not against us is for us”.