We all belong to God

We are now in the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time and today’s gospel is yet another teaching by our Lord Jesus Christ that I hope we can all learn from. This time, it is His beloved disciple complaining that someone who did not belong to their group was also casting out demons in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. The response of our Lord is very interesting, frank and candid. And he even goes on to warn his disciples of what to do when they commit sin. You can read it in Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48.

“38 John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us. 39 Jesus replied, “Do not prevent him. There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me. 40 For whoever is not against us is for us.

41 Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward. 42 Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe (in me) to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. 43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire.

45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life crippled than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna. 47 And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna, 48 where their worm does not die, and the fire is no quenched.”

***

In the first part of this gospel, we hear of John the beloved, complaining to the Lord Jesus that he saw a person driving out demons in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. John apparently tried to stop him because the person was not a follower of Jesus nor was he one of the disciples. But John must have been taken aback when the Lord rebuked him saying, “Do not prevent him. There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me. For whoever is not against us is for us.”

With the popularity of our Lord Jesus Christ on the all-time high, his disciples must have felt proud that they followed the Master who attained a very high-profile status amongst the people of Israel. So if they found anyone trying to cast our demons in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, his disciples didn’t like it and believing that they exclusively belonged to the Lord Jesus Christ, they tried to stop them.

But the Lord told them this in the Gospel of John 10: 14-16 in the Good Shepherd Discourse when our Lord Jesus Christ said: “I am the good Shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me. 15 Just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice and there will be one flock, one shepherd.” This teaching is very clear — that people who love our One God even if they aren’t Catholics still belong to God.

Then today’s gospel teaching shifts to a warning that our Lord gives to his disciples when he said: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe (in me) to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. 43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire.”

This is a very logical teaching from the Lord not to cause young people to commit sin, otherwise it would be better to put a stone weight on your neck and be thrown into the sea where you would certainly drown. He also teaches people, especially robbers who use their hands to steal from people and kill them, that it is better for them to cut their hand and enter the kingdom of heaven with one hand rather than go to hell with two hands.

To have a better understanding of this passage, we go to Matt. 12:47-50 when someone tells the Lord:  “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, asking to speak with you. Then Jesus replied, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? 49 And stretching out his hands toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. 50 For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister and mother.”

If you think that the Lord Jesus Christ was insulting his mother, you are wrong because the Lord knew that his mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, has done the will of the Father during the annunciation of his birth by the Angel Gabriel. This is why we read in her Magnificat, “From henceforth, generations shall call me blessed.” So now is the time to ask yourself, “Do you do the will of the heavenly Father? If you do, then you are elevated to a higher status as the brother and the sister of our Lord Jesus Christ.

***

For email responses to this article, write to [email protected] or [email protected]. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.