Gospel according to Saint Mark 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 the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna, where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.'”

Envy, Scandals and a Glass of Water

Luis CASASUS President of the Idente Missionaries

Rome, September 29, 2024 | XXVI Sunday in Ordinary Time

Num 11: 25-29; James 5: 1-6; Mk 9:38-43.45.47-48

1. Raised sails. Probably, what Christ wanted to tell his disciples in today’s episode is not that the person who “cast out demons” in his name was wonderful and a model of virtue. Rather he was assuring them, as he later said, that if anyone does good in his name, he is with him. And the reality is that the Holy Spirit always finds a way for us to be instruments for the kingdom of heaven, despite our mediocrity and attachment to our ideas. What’s more, we can do truly miraculous good … without even realizing it.

A young person wrote a letter describing what happened to him when he was dangerously close to suicide.

That young man was driving his car to a bridge with the intention of jumping off. He stopped at a traffic light and happened to look over to the sidewalk. There, there was an old woman who had just stepped off the curb to cross the street. As she passed him, she gave him the most beautiful smile he had ever seen. Then the color of the traffic light changed.

As the young man continued on his way, the beautiful smile of that woman haunted him. By the time he reached the bridge, his heart had completely changed. Later he said he had no idea who that woman was. He never saw her again. He only knows that he owes her his life.

Jesus insists, saying that anyone who gives a cup of water to his own will not go unrewarded. As happened to Eldad and Medad, according to the First Reading, we are his when we let ourselves be led by the Holy Spirit, when we do not commit the clumsiness that James describes in the Second Reading, that is, we act without vision of the future, without being aware that our life is brief, limited and that, in reality and without being pessimistic or sinister, “we are in the last days”.

This does not only mean that we must avoid the disgrace of punishment, of regret for our imperfect and selfish actions, but that we must set our sails in line with God’s will, to feel that we are moving forward, that we are not adrift, dragged by the dictatorship of our desires and whims. Providence (that’s why we call it that…) has a road map for each of us. It is not a matter of understanding everything, but of taking advantage of every occasion.

A little boy once asked a veteran sailor: What is the wind?

The seaman replied: I don’t know, son. I can’t tell you what the wind is, but I can tell you how to hoist a sail so that you can navigate.

The Gospel Spirit tells us that “hoisting the sails” means a form of freedom to be conquered at every moment, not yielding to the impulses of my character and the unpredictable events or actions of others:

Then we will no longer be children, tossed about by the waves and tossed to and fro by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of those who use deceitful methods (Eph 4:14).

Sailors know this very well; they know that they cannot change the wind, but they can always take advantage of it, even when it comes from the bow.

—ooOoo—

2. The scandal. The second part of the Gospel text is a terrible threat from Christ. It is not a didactic tool in a parable, but a severe judgment, illustrated with frightening images that all the listeners could understand, addressed to whoever is the author of a scandal. Of course, what he wants to convey to us is the danger of wasting grace, of a true spiritual suicide, a self-destruction that is opposed to the divine desire and mercy.

Today, the power of scandal has been publicly highlighted and is multiplied by fatally effective and scientifically manipulated means of diffusion.

There are scandals everywhere. And it has become tremendously easy to be outraged by them. It is enough to turn on the evening news, preferably of the commercial networks, and there it is, irrepressible, intrusive and noisy: the scandal. There are scandals in the world of finance, scandals of corruption, sex and abuse, scandals of artists as well as of intellectual debate, political scandals, scandals in churches and trade unions, in companies, banks and the media, in sports and in the world of literature.

To what scandals does Christ refer? To those that destroy innocence, especially because they show ways and possibilities of succumbing to the passions in a particularly overwhelming way: First, because of the authority of the person who is the source of the scandal. Second, because it violates the soul of the one who is scandalized.

Let us illustrate the first effect. An older person I have admired, someone from whom I have learned a virtue, or a superior who has corrected aspects of my conduct, and at a given moment commits a moral fault or has a vulgar behavior, transmits to me -whether he wants it or not- a devastating message: this action has no importance, no negative consequences, it is compatible with the life of a good or excellent person; and in reality I will continue admiring that person, he will continue being for me a model to follow and that action he committed, which seemed negative to me, is no longer so… because he does it.

This is the case of a teenage girl who explained to me how her mother told her that sexual acts such as male or female masturbation, or “playing” with a friend’s body, should be taken in a playful sense; they have no moral or psychological implications. I do not think it is necessary to tell the rest of this sad story.

Secondly, it is true that the soul of the scandalized person suffers violence. Psychologists sometimes call it cognitive dissonance, a concept coined by Leon Festinger in the mid-20th century. It suggests that individuals experience discomfort when their beliefs and actions conflict. This discomfort often leads people to justify their actions or modify their beliefs to alleviate the dissonance.

That helps to explain why some individuals come to adopt violent or undignified, even aberrant, behaviors that they never before imagined they would embrace.

But scandal, in the spiritual life, goes beyond its moral or psychological effect. The destruction of innocence is not only an incitement to do evil, but a powerful distraction, a detour, a dissipation of our spiritual energy. It is akin to a tearing of the sails we mentioned earlier, of our ability to be sensitive to the breath of the Spirit, to the continuous breeze of His Inspiration.

In this case, inevitably, an idolatry of the world or of the passions is produced, as the Second Reading expresses it. James speaks of the “materially rich” to give a clear and visible example of how your idolatry and mine (even if we are not millionaires) has painful effects on others, the less fortunate, whom James calls laborers and reapers.

For example, there is a scandal that a community can easily give: the lack of unity, of communion. It is something that produces a deep rejection, an immediate aversion, which is even accentuated by group pride, such as that manifested by the disciples who despised those who prophesied and did not belong to the team close to the Master, or those who complained to Moses, including Joshua himself, because Eldad and Medad were not among the 70 chosen ones to receive the Spirit.

People who see in the communities of believers the same divisions, the same arrogance, prepotency and pride as in the world, feel encouraged to turn away from all religion, even from the idea of God. This scandal is particularly painful because it comes from those of us who are called to prepare the way for those who are beginning their journey in faith, not necessarily children, but young people and adults who experience weariness of the world.

The images that Christ chooses today when he speaks of the sin that produces scandal are the hands, the eyes and the feet, something that evidently are an important part of each person; with this he refers to the instincts that are more than passions, that are part of us and that only prayer allows us to control and put at the service of the kingdom and of our neighbor, that is, according to the purpose for which we were created.

The scandal does not have to be a certain action, a concrete moral fault. Surely, the worst scandal is mediocrity in the life of a disciple of Jesus. This mediocrity is manifested in the religious, or in general in the Christian, who makes efforts in tasks such as study, preparation for apostolic activities, impeccable professional work or preaching the doctrine of Christ and at the same time is inconsiderate with the people who live with him or her.

This mediocrity is also visible in people who have qualities, creativity or talents and do not use them to bring their neighbor closer to God, limiting themselves to “not committing faults”.

—ooOoo—

3. Giving a glass of water. Christ was helped by many people, quite a few women, most of them anonymous, who undoubtedly risked their fame by standing by the side of a young Master who was not well accepted by the authorities. Jesus refers today to a cup of water, something humble and of little value, but which can have great significance and be beneficial when the sun and thirst afflict a wayfarer.

Once again, Christ highlights the importance of gestures of mercy which, beyond their material or emotional efficacy, speak of God’s presence in human beings, who are moved by compassion, despite their vices and passions.

Sometimes we are the ones who forget to give that glass of water, that word or that gesture that can be the beginning of something important, of a journey together and, above all, can clear the eyes of those who are blinded by tears or whose hearts are confused by resentment.

_______________________________

In the Sacred Hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,

Luis CASASUS

President