Sunday, June 9, 2024

TENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

(Genesis 3:9-15; II Corinthians 4:13-5:1; Mark 3:20-35)

This Sunday we return to the Gospel of Saint Mark where we left off in February before Lent. Jesus is proclaiming the Kingdom of God in Galilee. Many people are impressed by his preaching with authority. But two groups appear in the passage we just heard that do not want him to continue preaching.

The reading says that Jesus' relatives come looking for him. It adds that they think he is `”out of his mind.” It does not mention why they think so. Perhaps they want Jesus to work in Joseph's workshop.

Jesus' preaching has also caught the attention of Jewish leadership in Jerusalem. These priests and scribes of the Law send representatives to Galilee to discredit his message. Earlier in the narrative Jesus challenged the local scribes when he ate with sinners and when he performed healings on the Sabbath. Now scribes from the holy city come saying that Jesus' conduct shows him to be possessed by a devil. Therefore, they say that he can cast out demons because he is in league with them.

Jesus responds to the accusation with parables. He compares the situation of a possessed man casting out demons to a kingdom where there is civil war or a family where there is resentment between brothers. Under such conditions the kingdom and the family could not survive.  Just so, if he, being possessed, tried to expel a demon, he would not be able to do so.

With the mention of diabolic possession we wonder about the possibility of its existence today. Experts assure us that there are possessed people. But while it is a relatively rare and very frightening thing today, in the gospels it occurs regularly and is frequently connected with illness. For example, Luke tells how Jesus healed many “who were troubled by unclean spirits” (6:18). It seems that where two thousand years ago physical and mental illnesses were attributed to demons, today there are medical explanations for them.

However, this does not mean that there are no demons lurking behind diseases. We remember C.S. Lewis fascinating book Screwtape Letters. In this work the devil advises his demon nephew that his objective is to make a person think that demons do not exist. Then, says the devil, the person can be brought under the demon’s power with ease. The devil's strategy in our case may be to make the patient think that the most important thing in life is to find excellent doctors. Then the patient may forget about God as our best recourse in all situations.

The passage ends with Jesus’ naming as family those who do God's will. He does not care that other people do not have blood like his in their veins as long as they submit to the Lord. In this way Jesus extends the family table to all who love their neighbors from the heart. May we love like this and find a place at his table.