Be a channel of peace

Listening to the Spirit

Make me a channel of your peace
Where there is hatred let me bring your love
Where there is injury, your pardon Lord
And where there is doubt true faith in You

Make me a channel of your peace
Where there is despair in life let me bring hope
Where there is darkness only light
And where there's sadness ever joy

Make me a channel of your peace
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned
It is in giving to all men that we receive
And in dying that we are born to eternal life

Oh, Master grant that I may never seek
So much to be consoled as to console
To be understood as to understand
To be loved as to love with all my soul

Listening to the Word

Mark9:38-43.45.47-48

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.'"

Reflection

The visit of Pope Francis to some countries in Asia recently was colored with some beautiful gestures of building up the culture of an encounter. The picture of Nasaruddin Umar, the imam of the Istiglal Mosque in Jakarta, leaned over to kiss Francis on the forehead, and in return, the pope grasped Nasaruddin's hand, kissed it and held it to his cheek have been posted and shared by many people in social media. This gesture expresses beautifully the universal language of humanity to live together despite our different religions as children of the same God.

I found Pope Francis and the Muslim Imam’s gesture expresses beautifully the common language of humanity to live and love one another. Indeed, “how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” This desire to live together in harmony even become more necessary in our time as we witness the escalation of tension and wars around the world. The need to have space for others in our hearts is an essential to make the Kingdom of God present for all humanity.

Jesus’ disciples in today’s gospel had so-called an exclusive mentality. "Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us." They are outsider and so let us build a wall. By doing so, the disciples limit the work of God’s Kingdom and His goodness to a certain or rather their own group. This exclusive mentality also reveals the inner life of Jesus’ disciples that had no space for others.

As Christians, we too, can fall into the same trap of this exclusive mentality. We claim to be better than others. We claim to be holier than our neighbors. This claim of superiority shows our poor interior life that fills with pride, arrogance and jealousy. With these attitudes we build a monument of exclusion which in turn block ourselves from one another and God.

Let us destroy this wall of exclusion and make a space in our hearts for one another. Let us take Jesus’ words to his disciples into our hearts, “Do not prevent him… For whoever is not against us is for us.” So, if today you hear His voice harden not your hearts. Let us make the world a single family in Christ by building more bridges and not walls of exclusion.