OMELIE / Omelie EN

30 set 2018

30/09/2018 26th Sunday in O. T. - B 

30/09/2018 26^th Sunday in O. T. - B 

Reading 1, NM 11,25-29 * Psalm 18 * Reading 2, JAS 5,1-6 * Gospel, MK 9,38-43.45.47-48

Jesus is going on teaching His disciples. His words are not for sharing news that need to be known, but instead they gives us an idea of how to live, and above all, what kind of relationship we can maintain with Him, God's Son, way, truth and life!

The disciple, even if he has received from the Lord a special power, should not feel privileged in an exclusive and selfish way. Through the disciple's word, in him is always active Jesus, the Lord! And he is free to behave also in other ways, through other people's faith too. The disciple of Jesus' does not have to let grow in him either jealousy or pride: he needs to content himself of the fact that his Lord's Spirit is spreading, working in the world, winning Him everybody, also through other people's work. Nowadays we could read the event told by the Gospel in this way: when someone that is not a Christian calls Jesus' name, and he gets the miracle he is asking for, this turns always out something for the praise and the glory of the Lord, even if it happened outside the Church! The person building a relationship based on faith in Him becomes His friend, and he will become friend of the Christians too, brother of those who already believe, even if he has never been in the Church! Jesus is the only «judge» for everybody, the only reference point. Indirectly this is an invitation from the Lord to revise and renew always our relationship with Him, not to ever think we are sure of ourselves, to win the temptation of the pride that is always ready to show up in the heart of those believers of old!

The event recorded in the first reading shows us how Moses reacted to Joshua's jealousy. His young servant was envious of the fact that two elders were prophesizing in an unusual place, far from the others. Moses asks Joshua to let God free to hand His revelation over to whoever He wants, and to recognize His work with gratitude! This is what Jesus does with His disciple John.

Jesus continues: "Whoever is not against us is for us". It is pleasant and consoling to hear this "us" said by Jesus! He knows to be the head of the Church, a single thing with it! Who does not antagonize it, is its friend. Jesus knows that there is no middle ground, a neutral way: He is always the sign of contradiction. All men are for or against Him, and the same referring to the Church. Whoever is against the Head is also against the Body, and whoever is against the Body, that is the Church, is also against its Head, that is Christ! This is what Saint Paul is referring to while he is telling about his conversion: he heard "Why are you persecuting me?". To his question "Who are you, sir?" was answered "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting". He, actually, was persecuting the Christians! In the same way, whoever does something to a believer out of love, just because the latter belongs to Jesus, this action is considered by the Lord as done to Himself.

The third teaching of the Lord's is about sin. A sin is an obstacle placed in the middle of the road, something preventing from continuing the journey. A sin is everything that can make a person not completely mature and confident in himself to loose motivation to adhere to the Lord Jesus, to listen to His word, to live His teaching. A sin, therefore, can be even a single sentence expressing doubt, a sarcastic laugh against a choice based on faith, a criticism to the authority of the Church, to be ready too easily to skip the Mass on Sunday, to laugh of a blasphemous joke...and so on. These «small» actions, to the weak in matter of faith, are an obstacle more dangerous than a very serious crime, which everybody can appreciate the seriousness of.

Jesus wants us to be of help for each other walking towards Him, the only Savior of men. With firm speech He makes us aware of our behavior. Our very own actions could be an obstacle for our journey in the faith. "If your hand, your foot, your eye causes you to sin", in this case "cut it off"! No saint has ever cut off his own hand. But the brethren firm in their faith have changed job (the hand!), have avoided to go to certain places or with certain people (the foot!), have got ridden of books, images, TV programs, web pages (the eye!), when this was being detrimental to their faith!

A particular attention must be given to wealth, Saint John is pointing out to us: this, with its particular strength of attraction, can become a serious obstacle, both to the faith and to the charity of the believer, they can prevent him from being a witness of the Lord Jesus! Our eye must stay focused on men, on the poor and the needy, in order for our heart not to lose the greatest treasure, that is always Jesus Christ, our only Lord, whose heart is open to the "little ones" in the entire world!