10th Sunday in Ordinary Time
In
the last three weeks we have celebrated the three great feasts, Pentecost,
Trinity Sunday, and the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, that mark the
end of the Easter season. Now we return to what the Church calls Ordinary time,
that period of the liturgical year that is not associated with the great feasts
of Christmas and Easter.
The
priest dons a green colored vestment (a symbol of hope) that will be worn for
practically every Sunday until the start of the season of Advent. Ordinary
comes from a Latin word and doesn’t exactly mean what we mean by ordinary but
still, most of the readings in Ordinary time deal with the ordinary day by day
events in the mission of Jesus.
However,
our first reading goes back to the beginning where we have the familiar story
of Adam and Eve from the Book of Genesis. In today’s passage we read of the first
consequences of original sin. We do not like to talk about original sin anymore,
but it is good to define the term. Sin is a very blunt English word, but the
Latin equivalent is peccata which
means a stain or imperfection. None of us likes to be called evil or sinful but
we can all agree that everyone is imperfect. Original means from the origin or
beginning.
In
other words, we can find imperfection not only in ourselves but also in every
human being from the dawn of time. The greatest saints have acknowledged their
imperfection and claimed that they were sinners who only had been saved by the
grace of God. Even the Moslem Koran says that only Jesus and his mother, Mary,
entered this world without being touched by Satan.
Because
we all are imperfect, we can instantly recognize and understand how Adam and
Eve reacted when their disobedience was discovered. They blamed someone else!
Adam blamed Eve. “The woman whom you put here with me—she gave me fruit from
the tree, and so I ate it.” In turn, Eve blamed the serpent. “The serpent
tricked me into it, so I ate it.”
Interestingly,
this passage ends with a phrase that has long been misunderstood. The Lord says
to the Serpent:
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
And between your offspring and hers,
He will strike at your head,
While you strike at his heel.
In
times past the “woman” became associated with Mary, the new Eve, and artists
often depicted Mary standing on the head of the serpent who vainly attempted to
strike at her heel. Today, as our translation indicates, it is the offspring,
Jesus, who will strike at the head of Satan, and destroy his kingdom.
In
today’s gospel passage we actually see Jesus in combat with the serpent, Satan.
This passage picks up right after Jesus had embarked on his mission of teaching and healing. In particular, he had
been driving out demons from those who were in their power. Moreover, in the
previous verses, he had just called his apostles and given them the power and
authority to combat demons as well.
His
success had attracted large crowds, and Mark tells us that immediately on
arriving back home with his apostles from this first journey, Jesus was
surrounded by a crowd to the extent that his own relatives could not even get
in to see him. It may be that the relatives were alarmed by the charges that
Jesus himself was possessed by the Devil.
There
were scribes or biblical experts from Jerusalem in the crowd who claimed that
rather than opposing Satan, Jesus actually derived his power to drive out
demons from Satan. In effect, they were saying that He, himself, was possessed
with “an unclean spirit.” The reply of Jesus is simple. “How can Satan drive
out Satan?"
Jesus
then goes on to say that while all the bad things that humans can say and do
can be forgiven, “whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have
forgiveness.” In the feast of Pentecost, we saw the Holy Spirit come down upon
the disciples. The feast of the Holy Trinity showed us that the Holy Spirit is
the spirit of Jesus himself.
To
call His Spirit unclean is to say that it is an evil spirit with no power to
save us from our own imperfect nature. If we deny the very power of the Spirit
of God to forgive our sins, how can we find salvation and happiness?
Finally,
some in the crowd tell Jesus that his mother and brothers are outside waiting
for him. Scholars tell us that in the Aramaic language there is no separate
word for brothers, sisters or cousins. In any case Jesus informs the crowd that
“whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” All of us
who bear the fruits or marks of His Holy Spirit will be of his family.
In
no particular order, these fruits of the Spirit are modesty, patience, peace,
chastity, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control, charity, joy,
generosity, and kindness. As St. Paul said in today’s passage from the letter
to the Corinthians we are all of one family.
Since
we have the same spirit of faith,…
We
too believe and therefore we speak,
Knowing
that the one who raised the Lord Jesus,
Will
raise us also with Jesus
And
place us with you in his presence.
###
Reading 1. Genesis 3: 9-15
Reading II. 2 Corinthians 4: 13—5:1
Gospel. Mark 3: 20-35 (my mother and my brothers)
