A Homily – The Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

First Reading – Genesis 3:9-15 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 129(130)

Second Reading – 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1 ©

Gospel Acclamation – John 14:23

Alternative Acclamation – John 12:31,32

The Gospel According to Mark 3:20-35 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 The reading for today from the Book of Genesis is merely an etiological myth concerning the origin, purpose and meaning of the rainbow…it has nothing to do with reality.

 Floods and other natural disasters happen, not because call wills them or causes them to occur. God did not destroy the world with a flood; God does not intervene in the world in that way.

 The authors of this mythology were addressing the origins and fallout of a major regional disaster, not one that they experienced themselves, but the memory of one (likely more than one) that had undergone significant mythologization before them. They coopted this narrative and used it to express the hope that such an event will never occur again.

 Know this.

 God, the creator of the universe, is patient, loving and kind.

 God’s spirit is the spirit of mercy; if you are looking for justice in the world, you will find it mercy.

 Learn from God; emulate God’s spirit. Through patience, love and kindness you will manifest the spirit of God’s mercy within you…follow it and you will be on the way.

 Consider the writing of the apostle, there is wisdom here, and folly as well…therefore be mindful.

 God provides for all of God’s children; God has prepared a home for everyone in paradise. Trust in God’s plan, this is the essence of faith.

 It is reasonable to expect that the strength of our faith will wax and wane, wax and wane again, like the moon rising and falling in circuit.

 Do not be concerned, God has accounted for this, and the end for which you have been prepared is not meted out according to the measure of faith a person possesses, or their relative lack of it.

 Know this.

 Grace is not transactional, and God is always with you.

 Remember.

 Jesus was not killed for the “glory” of God, or to fulfill some divine purpose; he was killed to suit the vanity of small-minded men. His death was a political murder; any suggestion otherwise undermines the truth.

 Every single one of God’s children (which is every one of us), all people, in all time, in all places is the subject of God’s love and mercy; no-one is left out of the divine plan; any suggestion otherwise diminishes the good news.

 God does not intervene in human affairs like Zeus, or Jupiter or Jove. God is not the Thunderer, neither is God a king; such attestations are a disservice to the faith.

 God comes as a friend, a sister, a brother, a parent; God comes to us as a stranger, we find God among the meek and the marginalized, the poor and the hungry and the outcast.

 Know this.

 There is no power in this world other than God. The Gospel writers penned a lie when they wrote about the “prince” of this world. There are no principalities or powers active in the world that are not made by human beings, for human purposes, as institutions of power and control.

 God has no enemy, and the only enmity we face is the enmity we engender in our own hearts, to our own detriment.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today.

 It purports to answer a question concerning the authority of Jesus to cast out demons and devils.

 Set aside for a moment that we do not live in a world populated by demons and devils. We live in God’s creation, a world that is wholly ordered to God, by God and for God’s purpose.

 The Gospel reports that Jesus had been engaged in his ministry and “casting out demons,” but what he was really doing was caring for the sick, and his opponents wanted to downplay his work by suggesting that his successful healings, indicated he was in league with the devil.

 The gospel writers answered this with an argument that did little to challenge the claims of Jesus’ opponents. The argument they put in Jesus’ mouth is not conclusive, in fact they leave his claims exposed to counter-argument. It seems that they are not directing and argument to the critics Jesus faced in his own day, but rather toward own opponents in the period of the early church. In fact, they are not actually engaged in an argument, rather, they are making a call for unity on the grounds of authority, not reason or rationality.

 Ultimately, the Gospel writers undermine the Jesus’ teaching, they water down the good news. They outline what they perceive to be the upper limits of God’s love and mercy, threatening anyone who would challenge the authority church, with eternal damnation.

 This is not the way.

 The Gospel writers teach that God will forgive all sins, all blasphemies, except one, a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which the leaders of the church claims resides with them…which is itself blasphemy. The Gospel writers call for the unity of the church, over and against the unity of the family, and this is the final tell that they had strayed from the way.

 

First Reading – Genesis 3:9-15 ©

'I Was Afraid Because I Was Naked, and I Hid'

The Lord God called to the man after he had eaten of the tree. ‘Where are you?’ he asked. ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden;’ he replied ‘I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.’ ‘Who told you that you were naked?’ he asked ‘Have you been eating of the tree I forbade you to eat?’ The man replied, ‘It was the woman you put with me; she gave me the fruit, and I ate it.’ Then the Lord God asked the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ The woman replied, ‘The serpent tempted me and I ate.’

  Then the Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, ‘Be accursed beyond all cattle, all wild beasts.

You shall crawl on your belly and eat dust every day of your life.

I will make you enemies of each other: you and the woman, your offspring and her offspring.

It will crush your head and you will strike its heel.’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 129(130)

Out of the Depths

From the Morning Watch Even Until Night My Soul is Longing For the Lord.

Out of the depths I have cried to you, Lord:

  Lord, hear my voice.

Let your ears listen out

  for the voice of my pleading.

If you took notice of our transgressions, Lord –

  Lord, who would be left?

But with you is forgiveness,

  and for this we revere you.

I rely on you, Lord,

  my spirit relies on your promise;

my soul hopes in the Lord,

  more than the watchman for daybreak.

More than the watchman for daybreak,

  let Israel hope in the Lord:

for with the Lord there is kindness

  and abundant redemption.

He himself will redeem Israel

  from all its transgressions.

 

Second Reading – 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1 ©

We Are Being Trained to Carry the Weight of Eternal Glory

As we have the same spirit of faith that is mentioned in scripture – I believed, and therefore I spoke – we too believe and therefore we too speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus to life will raise us with Jesus in our turn, and put us by his side and you with us. You see, all this is for your benefit, so that the more grace is multiplied among people, the more thanksgiving there will be, to the glory of God.

  That is why there is no weakening on our part, and instead, though this outer man of ours may be falling into decay, the inner man is renewed day by day. Yes, the troubles which are soon over, though they weigh little, train us for the carrying of a weight of eternal glory which is out of all proportion to them. And so we have no eyes for things that are visible, but only for things that are invisible; for visible things last only for a time, and the invisible things are eternal.

  For we know that when the tent that we live in on earth is folded up, there is a house built by God for us, an everlasting home not made by human hands, in the heavens.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 14:23

Alleluia, alleluia!

If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him.

Alleluia!

 

Alternative Acclamation – John 12:31,32

Alleluia, alleluia!

Now the prince of this world is to be overthrown, says the Lord.

And when I am lifted up from the earth, I shall draw all men to myself.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Mark 3:20-35 ©

A Kingdom Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand

Jesus went home with his disciples, and such a crowd collected that they could not even have a meal. When his relatives heard of this, they set out to take charge of him, convinced he was out of his mind.

The scribes who had come down from Jerusalem were saying, ‘Beelzebul is in him’ and, ‘It is through the prince of devils that he casts devils out.’ So he called them to him and spoke to them in parables, ‘How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot last. And if a household is divided against itself, that household can never stand. Now if Satan has rebelled against himself and is divided, he cannot stand either – it is the end of him. But no one can make his way into a strong man’s house and burgle his property unless he has tied up the strong man first. Only then can he burgle his house.

‘I tell you solemnly, all men’s sins will be forgiven, and all their blasphemies; but let anyone blaspheme against the Holy Spirit and he will never have forgiveness: he is guilty of an eternal sin.’ This was because they were saying, ‘An unclean spirit is in him.’

His mother and brothers now arrived and, standing outside, sent in a message asking for him. A crowd was sitting round him at the time the message was passed to him, ‘Your mother and brothers and sisters are outside asking for you.’ He replied, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ And looking round at those sitting in a circle about him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. Anyone who does the will of God, that person is my brother and sister and mother.’

 

A Homily – The Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)