OMELIE / Omelie EN
29 set 2024 29/09/2024 - 26th Sunday in O.T. - B
29/09/2024 - 26th Sunday in O.T. - B
Reading 1 NUM 11,25-29 Psalm 18 Reading 2 JAS 5,1-6 Gospel MK 9,38-43.45.47-48
We could summarise the topics in today’s reading down to two only.
The apostle John, James’ brother, certain he would please the Lord, had prevented someone to cast out unclean spirits using Jesus’ name. He thought the name of his Lord and master could only be invoked by His disciples, and nobody else. Did he do so because of jealousy? Or instead because of a feeling of mutual belonging, according to which not only the disciples are Jesus’, but also the Master belongs to the disciples?
It is happening again what happened to Moses when he chose seventy men so they could receive the spirit of prophecy: this is why they had left the camp, to gather in prayer in the tent that was replacing the temple during the forty years of walking in the desert. It happened that two men, who did not leave with them, still received the same prophetic spirit: Joshua looked worried to Moses. The latter instead, inspired by God, told him: “Would that all the people of the Lord were prophet! Would that the Lord might bestow his spirit on them all!”.
So Jesus is not offended if someone, outside the enclave of His disciples, uses His name and in His name orders the unclean spirits to stop troubling men. He then answers to John: “There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me”. If a person starts loving Jesus, even if he knows Him only partially, and he does something with Him and for Him, he will end up becoming a true disciple of His. Whomever was not “one of ours”, could easily become so by invoking the Lord’s name and starting loving Him. And Jesus adds the strong and certain fact that any loving gesture, even the smallest, done in His name, so for the love of Him, will receive a reward from the Father.
Today’s second teaching is about scandal. A scandal is an obstacle for the faith in Jesus. Since Jesus is the Savior, and the only Savior for men, every action or word which could become an obstacle to believing in Him, prevents that person from being saved. They who dissuade someone from believing in Jesus becomes responsible for their perdition. This is why Jesus uses that paradoxical sentence: “It would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea”.
We need to be really careful to facilitate the faith in Jesus, with words and our example. But He has warned us also about making decisions that could get in the way of our own faith. He is even saying: give up your hand, your foot and your eye, if these might become an obstacle to you getting closer to me. These are images which tells us a lot in a very few words.
Our hand is representing every work we might put hand to. Are there employments that require you to disobey Jesus? Or that are driving you awwhyfrom Him? Let them go at once, decisively.
The foot could represent travelling, meet-ups, places we go to: are there friendships or places you like to go to, that are against the faith in the Lord, or are becoming an obstacle when you should pray? Give them up without hesitation.
Is your eye resting on pictures, images, shows, movies, games that despise your faith and your Master? Do not focus on them: switch off, move on, get away from them. Are you buying newspapers, magazines which usually curse your Church? Are you so little interested in your faith and your brothers in the faith? Don’t you care at all about your salvation and the salvation of those who see you, and on whom you have some influence, like your children or grandchildren, friends or employees?
The worried teaching of Jesus is extended and repeated by Saint James’ terrible words. They are targeted to those who use wealth unjustly, who exploit the work and the efforts of the brethren, exactly because then the faith is completely disregarded. The faith is precious, it needs to be lived coherently and seriously.
In primo piano
OMELIE / Omelie EN
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SCRITTI IN ALTRE LINGUE
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- Wie der Tau
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- Notizen von Vigilius, dem heiligen Bischof von Trient
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