Mark 9:38-50

TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORD. TIME 

Mark 9:38-50

A good Sunday to all. 

The proud, arrogant, and somewhat vain person does not attract sympathy; it is evident that he acts to show off, to assert himself, and if someone who is a little annoyed by his preciousness dares to point it out to him, that person is ashamed. The hearts of Jesus' disciples were also filled with this personal pride. 

Let us remember what last Sunday's Gospel told us; on the road, they were arguing as each one of them wanted to be first, and when Jesus came home, he asked them what they were arguing about along the way, but they did not answer because they were ashamed to be involved in a conversation that Jesus did not want to hear about. This personal pride, this impulse that leads to wanting to dominate, to impose oneself over others, comes from the evil one, not from the Spirit of Christ that leads to choose the last place, that of service. 

And this pride is easily noticed, it is immediately discovered; it cannot be kept hidden. There is another form of pride that is subtler, more dangerous because it is not easy to detect and is well hidden. It is the group pride that mimics. Sometimes it takes the form of zeal for God; other times, it presents itself as love for the Church, but if it is well analyzed, it is still an expression of the desire to compete, to affirm one's superiority, not as a person, because they are ashamed, but as a group. It is not the attitude of one who puts himself at the service of others to help them in their search for truth and goodness. 

As we know, this group pride always leads to fanaticism, to sectarianism and opposition to others. In today's Gospel text, Jesus wants to put us on our guard about this subtle group pride. Let's listen to what happened: 

"John said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.’ Jesus replied, ‘Do not prevent him. No one performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me.’” 

Let us notice that John appears as an eminent figure among the disciples, one who is more concerned than the others for the reputation of the group to which he belongs. I told you before that these people easily become fanatics; this is the case of John and his brother James, who received from Jesus a not-very pleasant nickname, 'boanergués,' which means 'people who easily unleash hurricanes, storms,' fundamentalists, and fanatics. The evangelist Luke also reminds us that when Jesus and his disciples arrived in Samaria and the Samaritans did not receive them, the two brothers came to Jesus and said, 'You must do as Elijah did, let us call down fire from heaven to burn up all these unbelievers.' And Jesus turned and rebuked them. 

John comes to Jesus and says, "Teacher, we saw one driving out demons in your name." What does it mean to invoke the name of Jesus? The ancient healers used to pronounce the names of angels and demons during exorcisms, names of some famous personages who were recognized for their therapeutic powers because they believed that these names contributed to the efficacy of their interventions. Josephus Flavius, the historian, reports a certain Eleazar who cast out demons by invoking the name of Solomon considered the protector of all those who cultivated knowledge. And, as Jesus had also become famous, there were healers who, among other names, also put the name of Jesus. 

John ran to the Master and said to him: 'We have a dangerous rival out there who heals people, does something good, but he uses your name, and we distrust him.' The verb used means, 'We prevented him.' Therefore, they repeatedly tried to prevent him, but they couldn't because he continued anyway. 

What is it that bothers the disciples because John is speaking in the name of all? It is the fact that this person 'does not follow us; he does not have our authorization.' This is Satan. Before, Satan had made Peter speak in the name of all; now, Satan manifests himself in communal protagonism; leads to competition, then to fanaticism, then to exclusions. If John had said, 'There is one who is speaking in your name but does not follow you; he is far from what you teach, leads a life opposite to yours'... But, no. John says, 'he does not follow us,' that is, he identifies following Jesus with doing what we say, what we decide. 

The disciples reveal that they have a deep-seated conviction that they are the only ones who can follow Jesus and are the exclusive repositories of good; they feel themselves to be the obligatory point of reference for anyone who would utter the name of Jesus, to speak in the name of Jesus. And they feel annoyed and vexed by the fact that there is somebody who does good without belonging to their group. And what bothers them the most is the fact that they are forced to admit that it may happen that someone who does not belong to their group will do something good that they cannot do. This is what happens here. 

The evangelist Mark, a few verses earlier, talked about an episode in which the father of a child with epilepsy came to Jesus and said, 'I brought my son to your disciples, but they were not able to cure him.' Here are the Twelve who were not able to exercise that liberating action which Jesus had given them the power to exercise; instead, here is one who does not belong to the group, who does what they cannot do. It is jealousy that makes those who do good look like dangerous rivals. 

The danger of being in the same spiritual condition as the disciples is always present, even in the Church today. We often forget a fundamental and beautiful truth: The Spirit, the divine life, has been given to every person, is not reserved for the baptized. Therefore, it is not surprising that this divine life, which is the Spirit present in everyone, inspires people to perform beautiful and even heroic works of love, works truly worthy of the children of God. 

When a Christian is confronted with these beautiful works, what should he do? Should he be sad or rejoice? The demon of communal pride may suggest pretending not to see, ignoring, or diminishing the good that others do, those who do not belong to the Church... 'Yes, they do good works, but not like us; ours are better. It is difficult to accept that others can even give us lessons in honesty, loyalty, non-violence, hospitality, tolerance.' When you see the good, you can only rejoice because it is always the work of the same Spirit as the heavenly Father has given to each person. 

Jesus says: 'Do not hinder him. He who does a great work —and great work can only come from the Spirit—cannot then speak evil of me.' The ecclesial community was willed by Christ as the city on the mount so that all may see and behold the beautiful things that those who let themselves be guided by the Gospel do and, thus, they should always see love, joy, dialogue, welcome, reconciliation, but this community is not the only place where you can see wonders; these good works spring up everywhere when people allow themselves to be moved by the Spirit given to them. 

Jesus continues with a beautiful principle: “For whoever is not against us is for us.” Therefore, who is against us? Against us is he who chooses to dominate instead of serving, when ambition to be above others should becomes a pedestal for our greatness. These are against Jesus; he who wants to be great departs from the Lord; he who serves, even though he does not belong to the ecclesial community is one of us. Whoever loves is one of us, even if he is not baptized. 

After this episode from which we have grasped the actual message for us, the gospel passage goes on to presenting a series of sayings of the Lord that we want to study together. Let's listen to the first of these sentences: 

"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.” 

The gesture of giving a cup of water is not very meaningful for us today because we take it from the tap but let us situate the saying of the Lord in the land of a people who have experienced the wilderness, where those who know not the location of the wells dies of thirst. Let us place ourselves in the land where even today, water is scarce. 

In the Bible, we find the commandment that water cannot be withheld even from one's enemies. The book of Proverbs, in chapter 25, says: "If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; if thirsty, give him water to drink." It is also beautiful what the prophet Isaiah says when he speaks of people fleeing from war, and he says: "You must go to meet these fugitives carrying water because they are thirsty." 

And the cup of water is never given alone, a word, a smile, or some other gesture of love always accompanies it. That's why, in the lands of the Ancient Middle East, giving a glass of water is a sign of welcome. To offer a glass of water to the stranger, the foreigner, the enemy, was equivalent to saying, 'I wish you well,' 'I want you to live.' It's a small gesture of love, but what makes it blossom? It brings about dialogue, reconciliation, the awareness that the other, whoever he or she is, is a brother or a sister; this is the reward promised by Jesus: A small gesture of love will spring a more human and fraternal world. 

Jesus does not attribute this gesture to one of his disciples but to a stranger, a stranger who, perhaps meeting someone who proclaims the Gospel for the first time, offers him a cup of water. The reward he receives is not paradise, a prize in the hereafter, no; the reward is that he collaborates in initiating a dialogue, a loving relationship between people who have different conceptions of life. This is what Jesus says: no gesture of love remains without fruit. 

And now let us listen to the second saying: 

“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.” 

'Scandal,' in Greek, means an obstacle you encounter on the way that causes you to stumble and interrupts your path. And Jesus here warns about this stumbling block that some believer makes before the little ones to make them stumble. These little ones are not the children; here, 'microi' are the people weak in faith, those who are trying to take their first steps following Jesus. It is precisely a believer who makes others stumble, interrupts their path, causes people to turn away from Christ. Those who put this obstacle, says Jesus, are assuming an enormous responsibility. 

The context in which Mark has inserted this saying allows us to identify the reason for the seriousness of this scandal. What scandal do these fragile people encounter when they approach the Christian community? The context tells us it is ambition and competition to be the first. This is the scandal that even today keeps the little ones away from the Church; it is always the same, the unedifying spectacle of competition, intrigues, the race for the first places, the honorary titles, the privileges. These are the pathetic comedies that drive away the little ones who then come to disbelieve in Christ. 

Then there is another scandal that occurs in addition to ambition, and this is much more serious, the false catechesis about God that has driven so many people away from the faith because they have not been able to accept the face of God that shines in the face of Jesus of Nazareth but was invented by people’s logic and traditions. 

There is a third scandal that we all understand very well. That of an un-evangelical life of us Christians. Jesus wanted his Church to be placed on the mountain so that all could behold the wonders, the effects, the extraordinary results that adherence to the Gospel produces in people. And when someone sees the opposite in the Christian community, he is scandalized. 

It has happened to all of us that they accuse us of some scandal present in the Church, and we react correctly saying that we are human; it is the human aspect that is present in the Christian community, but we would have realized that the non-believer does not remain convinced because he expects a different life from a Christian. 

And Jesus resorts to a harsh image now to indicate the gravity of this sin. He speaks of death by drowning... “it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck,” the one you see behind me, pulled by a donkey (from Capernaum). Jesus presents the gravity of this sin with the most infamous death because it made a proper burial of the corpse impossible. 

And now come three sayings in which Jesus speaks of the cuts to be made in life; we also say it to people getting involved in questionable situations—we tell them to cut. Let's listen to three recommendations given by Jesus in this regard: 

“If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. You should enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna into the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. You should enter into life crippled then with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye then with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna, where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’” 

There are scandals and obstacles on the way leading to life, which are put from outside. We have seen the scandal some believers give to the little ones, but some obstacles and scandals come from within. We all experience an opposing force, a spirit of evil within us, which must be reckoned with. Not everything that comes to our mind, the impulses that we feel, are good, no; and today Jesus wants to warn us of this danger of scandal that comes from within, and he uses three images: the hand, the foot, the eye, and a language that is very hard and paradoxical, a Semitic language. Not to take it literally, of course, gouge our eyes out or cut off our hands, but to take it seriously, because the danger of hands and feet and eyes being an impediment to build a life according to the Gospel is very real. 

These three sayings we have heard end with a mournful refrain about 'gehenna.' What is this gehenna, and what is this fire? The first thing to be made clear is that it has nothing to do with hell and with all the imagery related to this term: flames, torments, devils... This hell does not exist in the Gospel. Christians began to speak of these things from the second half of the second century after Christ. It was they who even invented the word 'hell.' Jesus never used it. He spoke of 'gehenna.' Therefore, we want to understand well what this gehenna is and what this fire is. 

Gehenna is the little valley that runs along the south side of Mount Zion. You can see the reconstruction of Jerusalem at the time of Jesus, which also indicates this small valley, 'gehenna.' The Hebrew name is 'geimnon' which means 'valley of hymnon.' This hymnon may have been the owner of this land. Today 'gehenna' is an excellent place. When I was a student, I used to go there for a walk. Why has it become a cursed place? Because where it meets the Kidron (which is indicated), and the 'grinnon' where there is a mound called 'tofet.' On this mound, in ancient times, human sacrifices were made; children were immolated to Moloch, the pagan idol. 

In ancient times it was widespread to sacrifice children to Moloch. The Carthaginians were famous for this cruel rite. This place had been desecrated by the pious king Josiah, and then had been cursed by the prophets. On this site of the 'tophet' now stands the monastery of St. Onofrius, and as it was a cursed place, the tradition tells that it was there that Judas went to hang himself. This gehenna had become an unclean place, also because graves had been dug in the rocks along the valley; this valley is all a succession of tombs. 

And then, to completely deconstruct this place, they began to throw all the garbage of the city into this valley. By the time of Jesus, the gehenna had become the dump, the garbage dump of the city of Jerusalem. Then day and night, they burned this garbage, and there was a fire that never went out, a disgusting smell. In the southern part of the city, in the area of Siloam, which is indicated, were all the unclean activities; there worked the leather tanners and the cheesemakers; even today, at the southern gate of the city of Jerusalem, the gate of the Maghribites has many names, the gate of the garbage, the dung, and everything dirty. 

The rabbis used the expression: 'to end up in gehenna' to warn of the danger of ruining one's life: 'be careful because if you behave like that, you will end up in gehenna,' i.e., throwing your life in a garbage can. It is a powerful expression that indicates to ruin your life. And it is in this sense that Jesus speaks of gehenna—no reference to God's punishments. Such an interpretation is not only erroneous but blasphemous. No greater offense can be given to God than to present him as an executioner who condemns his children, He who is love and only love. 

The image of gehenna is completed with that of the worm. What is this worm, and what is this fire? The worm indicates the decomposition of a corpse; it is the decomposition, the putrefaction faced by those who indulge in debauchery and decadence, the self-destruction of those who make choices that differ from the life proposed by Jesus of Nazareth. 

The fire that does not die is an image that is also used by the Baptist when he speaks of the wheat and the weeds that are thrown into the fire. Ultimately, the wheat remains, and the weeds are burned in the fire. Paul uses the same image; he says that at the end of life, the work of each person is tested by fire that burns all that is not gold: the leaves, the trash, everything ephemeral is burned. It is a warning to build a life on the values that remain, for all that is ephemeral is swept away. Our paper-mâché castles are burned, but it is beautiful what Paul says: 'Remember that you must go through the fire, but in the end, you will be saved by going through the fire.' This is a warning about the seriousness of life so as not to build castles that later burn down. 

These images were well known in Jesus' time; the rabbis used them to admonish, to shake the consciences of those who neglected their duties towards God and their neighbor. This insistence of Jesus on the seriousness of this life should be taken up by the preachers of today and let us not misinterpret the words of Jesus by turning them into a proclamation of eternal damnation of the reprobate. It is a false interpretation. 

Let us now see the three necessary cuts to avoid ending up in gehenna. The first is that of the hand; the hand represents action, the works of man, and Jesus says: control what you do. For the hand can do good, give life, raise the fallen, it can give bread to the hungry and clothe the naked; but it can also steal, can hoard the goods that others need, one may pile them up for his profit; he may commit violence or even kill. Jesus says: watch your actions; if your heart urges you to do evil things, cut off that hand with one blow. Jesus says: by following me, you decided that your hand will never be closed to withhold anything for your good but will always be open to give; therefore, the hand that closes selfishly cut it off, make the necessary sacrifices for your life depends on it, and you may become a person like me, says Jesus. 

Second image: the foot that scandalizes you. The foot indicates the direction, the choices, and life orientation. Jesus says: watch where you are going. In Judaism, the image of the two ways was familiar; the way of the truth and the way of lies, of corruption. The righteous walk in the way of light and the wicked choose the way of darkness. In the book of Deuteronomy, in chapter 30, God says: "I set before you life and good, death and evil; choose the way of God." 

It is beautiful how the Didache begins, which is the first catechism of the Church, written even before the Gospel according to Matthew. It begins by saying, 'There are two ways, one of life and the other of death, and the difference is great between these two ways.' And Jesus also speaks of the choice of the broad way and the narrow way. The broad ways are trendy, they are chosen by many; they seduce because they are comfortable. Jesus says: do not invest your life in the ways of sin, do not put your foot in them because if you start going in these ways, you will be seduced and never be able to return. That is why the need to immediately cut off the wrong paths because they always end in Gehenna, in the garbage dump. It is your life that ends there. 

Then the eye. The eye indicates the lusts that are present in the heart of every person; the lust for the accumulation of goods, pleasure, greed, and the dreams of glory. The eyes represent what we see, and the choices we make always start from the eyes, from the lust, from what seduces us. Looking around, we see what pleases the eyes, but the voice of the Spirit guides the disciple, from his being a child of God, not by the seduction of what he sees, what pleases us. Remember the forbidden fruit: the woman who saw it was good, beautiful, and pleasant. 

Jesus says to the disciple: when your plans are not in tune with love, do not wait until it is too late; beware of the seduction of the eyes. In the Gospel, according to Matthew, this saying of Jesus is directly related to the control of sexuality. It says in Chapter 5: "You have heard that it was said: you should not commit adultery; now I say to you that whoever looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery.” And then he goes on to say: “If your right eye is a cause of scandal, pluck it out and cast it from you,” cut it out immediately, for if you begin to let your eyes seduce you, your life will end in the dustbin. 

These choices may be naive in the eyes of the pagans. In the eyes of these people, the Christian may appear to deprive himself of all opportunities to enjoy life because he cuts back on everything which may be pleasing to the eye, but you know better because Jesus of Nazareth said: 'Be careful not to end up in gehenna.' The Christian may look like a disabled person because he has made all these cuts. He's not a disabled person; he is someone who has taken the decision to unite his life with Christ, he knows that, in the end, a successful life is invested in the gospel values. A demanding life, of course, but the only truly human one. 

For a final reminder to the disciples, Jesus uses the image of salt. Let us listen: 

“Everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if salt becomes insipid, with what will you restore its flavor? Keep salt in yourselves, and you will have peace with one another.” 

In the biblical culture, salt is a symbol of wisdom, giving flavor and meaning to life. Paul also uses it; writing to the Colossians, he says: “Your conversations should always be pleasant, seasoned with salt.” The conversations of believers in Christ have a particular flavor. The Christian does not use offensive, aggressive words, does not speak vulgarities because a particular flavor from the fire characterizes his conversation—says Jesus. 

What is this fire? “Everyone will be salted with fire.” The only fire Jesus knows is the fire of the Spirit. Jesus says in the 12th chapter of the Gospel, according to Luke: "I have come to bring fire on the earth, and I wish it were already ablaze." It is the fire of Pentecost, the fire of the Spirit, it is this Spirit that gives room to the Christian and gives flavor to a Christian's life. The fire of the Spirit is nothing else then the wisdom of love; and the Christian is characterized by the anti-ambition that leads to wanting to dominate others, to be served. 

The taste given by the fire of the Spirit is the taste of service and love. And Jesus warns you to be careful not to lose this flavor that characterizes you. The chemists say that salt cannot change its flavor, but there is a trick to make it lose its flavor, for example, adding a little bit of sugar makes the taste no longer the same. This is the danger that even Christians can run when they introduce in the evangelical logic a little pagan wisdom; thus, they lose their flavor. 

The last phrase of Jesus: "Keep salt in yourselves." Pure salt, which comes from the Spirit, characterizes them. “You will have peace with one another.” This is where peace and reconciliation can come from; only from the salt that comes from the Spirit, from love. All other attempts to build peace that does not start from this salt that Jesus brought into the world, that comes from his Spirit, will fail. The Christian is called to witness the power of the love brought by Christ. 

I wish you all a good Sunday and a good week.