Gospel Mk 9:38-43, 45, 47-48
At that time, 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. 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. 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. “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. 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. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut if off. It is better for you to enter into life crippled than 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 thekingdomofGodwith one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna, where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.'”
Homily
One of the complaints which we often here about the political enterprise here in T&T is that as soon as a government is changed, everything that was begun by the preceding government is changed or swept aside, whether these things be beneficial to the country or not. It is as if nothing good can come from the political party that, having been in government, has lost the elections. Because of this, so many things which could be beneficial for the nation are lost or delayed until the party which conceived of them is returned to power. Very often also it seems that persons want praise for themselves only and when others are praised, it upsets them and they seek ways of limiting the credibility of those others. That is why it is said so often of us that trinis do not like other trinis to succeed.
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I thought of that saying as I read the gospel passage given to us for our meditation this weekend because this segment of the Gospel of St. Mark deals with similar situations. Jesus had just told his disciples that they must be about service and not about power and prestige, when John says to him; “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.” It is as if John and the others want to keep all the power and prestige connected with casting out demons for themselves and so they try to prevent the individual who was casting out demons in Jesus’ name from so doing. Jesus again has to teach the disciples that the important thing for any disciple is to rejoice when good deeds are done in the name of Jesus and that the status of the person is not important, and in fact if someone not of the company does a good deed in Jesus’ name, the company reaps the benefit. Jesus therefore tells the disciples, “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.” What unites us to Jesus and makes us part of his company is in fact doing what the Father wants. That is why in the incident in which the relatives of Jesus go looking for him and the crowd tells him that his mother and brothers are looking for him and his reply to them was, “Here are my mother and brothers and sisters, for those who do the will of my Father are my mother and brother and sister” The disciples must not therefore stop anyone from doing good in Jesus’ name because if they do they are preventing Jesus’ mothers and brothers and sisters from acting in his name. To so act is to stifle the spread of goodness in our world. What a lesson there is in this for all of us! We are called therefore, not to prevent others from doing good but to encourage them whether they form part of our church or association, so that God’s kingdom may be spread amongst us. Disciples of Jesus, and that is whom we are, are persons therefore who actively encourage others to do good and rejoice when others receive the reward which is theirs for having done good.
This way of acting is in fact the ancient tradition of God’s people. In the first reading for this weekend, taken from the book of Numbers, we read that after the Lord bestowed some of the Spirit that was on Moses on the seventy elders, two men Eldad and Medad, who were not with the group began to prophesy. Again one of Moses’ aides said to Moses, “My Lord stop them! but Moses answered him, Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the people of the LORD were prophets! Would that the LORD might bestow his spirit on them all!” May that tradition be alive in our day and in our land so that God’s kingdom may be realized.
Prayer
All powerful and ever-loving God, we are so often jealous of those who do good and want to stop them. We don’t want to share the joy of acting and doing good in Jesus’ name with others. Help us to learn the lesson which Jesus gave to his disciples, that there is no one who performs a mighty deed in his name who can at the same time speak ill of him. For whoever is not against us is for us. Help us to encourage others so that we may create an army of persons who do good in Jesus’ name and who will therefore hasten the arrival of the Kingdom. We ask this through the intercession of this same Jesus, your Son, and Mary, our Mother. Amen
