For whoever is not against us is for us

Listening to the Spirit

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful. And kindle in them the fire of your love. send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And you will renew the face of the earth.

Lord, by the light of the Holy Spirit you have taught the hearts of your faithful. In the same Spirit help us to relish what is right and always rejoice in your consolation.

We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Listening to the Word

Mk 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 it 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

“He does not follow us”. These are the words of John, the beloved disciple of Jesus, the courageous one who will follow his Master until the end. But in today’s Gospel, John seems worried about the “institution”, the group of disciples, in our language we could say, he was worried about the Church, defending her authority, but forgetting that at the center of the Gospel there is always THE PERSON and his wellbeing.

This is our temptation too. There are times that we are so concerned with our groups that we are not able to see the goodness done by others. Not only that. There are times that we compete among us and we despise and we do not collaborate with other groups within the Church.

So, a question for each one of us is: what are the diseases of our Church? Do we belong to different groups that instead of collaborating together, they compete with each other? We do need to recognize that there are times and circumstances in which our groups, instead of building up the communion that Jesus always wanted for His Body, instead of having at the center the good of the person, try mainly to fulfill their own projects and targets.

What is the answer of Jesus to John and to us?

Jesus tells us that whoever helps this world to free itself, and to flourish, she or he belongs to the group of Jesus.

Are we sowing love, are we healing the injuries of the world, are we caring for the environment? You are of Christ.

Therefore, the true question for us is not “who is our enemy” but “Do I belong to Christ?” If I belong to Him, it means that I have the same way of living, behaving, thinking, looking at the world.

Moreover, Jesus is telling us that we are all brothers and sisters!! FRATELLI TUTTI!! The new encyclical of Pope Francis reminds us of the dream of God, who wishes for all mankind a universal single family, where everybody feels at home, and everybody contributes to the wellbeing of the others. This reality is strengthened by the conviction that the Holy Spirit is not only present in the Catholic Church. He moves and dwells where he likes and we discover signs of his presence even in other Christian Denominations and other Faiths.