SEPTEMBER 30^th 2012, TWENTY SIXTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

GOSPEL: Mark 9:38-43,47-48

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

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The disciples reject the good deeds of a man who is not part of their privileged circle. Jesus criticizes this attitude and insists that exclusion of a different sort be part of our daily lives. We must “cut off” our limbs rather than risk doing something that leads away from the fullness of life. In order to care for the sick or elderly, or to be a good parent, we must “cut off our hands” in the sense of renouncing actions that we would otherwise have preferred to occupy ourselves with. We must cut off our feet in the sense of not going to places we would have preferred to go for our own interests. The way of love that Jesus calls us to involves routine renunciation of this sort, but it brings us to the fullness of life and to communion with others

  

The disciples were more concerned about vetting people’s membership credentials than in the spreading of the Gospel

The Gospel passage discusses the issue of who should be considered to belong rightfully to Jesus’ circle. John tells the Lord that they had seen a man casting out devils in his name, and they tried to stop him because he was not a recognized member of their group. Casting out demons is a difficult task and cannot be done without invoking the power of God. But the man who was doing it did not have the correct “label” in the apostles’ eyes. He did not have official membership in the right group. Jesus, however, declares that it is not possible to do good in the name of evil. Evil cannot bring about genuine victory over evil. True victory over evil can only be brought about by God. The apostles therefore were combating against a brother who was doing genuine good in the name of Jesus. They were more concerned with protecting their own circle than with allowing others to participate in the saving work of Christ.

Exclusion is incompatible with salvation, but modern society routinely selects who has life and who is to be excluded from life

This is the first part of the Gospel passage, and it tells us that Christianity is not simply about criteria of adherence to a certain group. The second part of the passage goes on to tell us what being a Christian really involves, and it is extremely challenging! “If anyone creates an obstacle to one of these little ones who have faith, it would be better if he were thrown into the sea with a millstone around his neck.” It would be better to have a hand or leg cut off, to be permanently lame, to endure physical limitations of this sort, rather than to exclude someone from the Kingdom of God. The logic of salvation, the logic of life, is incompatible with the practice of exclusion. In modern society embryos are routinely excluded or selected in order to bring about a higher quality of life. The Nazis systematically excluded people who were considered inferior in order to create a higher quality of life for those who were “superior”. The Nazis are no longer around but our culture has become suffused with the principles of Nazism. In other words, we have become arbiters of who can have life and who cannot. We select who should be allowed in and who should be kept out.

We must be willing to “cut” ourselves first before cutting others off from the fullness of life

Jesus declares that instead of cutting others off from life, we must first be willing to “cut” ourselves. We should be ready to cut off one of our own limbs rather than do something that leads others away from life. We must renounce part of ourselves rather than exclude someone else from the fullness of life. When we look at ourselves in this light, we see that many of our choices are choices for death rather than life. Decisions that appear to defend a certain quality of life are in fact to the exclusion of others. The choice for communion with others, the choice for the life of others, is not simply a moral obligation. It leads, rather, to the fulfilment of our own existence. What kind of life am I living if it is at the expense of the lives of others? Exclusion of others ultimately leads to the negation of myself. This unhappy generation of ours is a generation of elitists that routinely practices the exclusion of others, and cries aloud the right to its own privileges. The Lord Jesus has shown us another way, giving his body for the life of others. He allowed his hands and his feet to be nailed to the cross so that everyone might enter life. He entered heaven covered in wounds so that the gates of paradise would be thrown wide open for us.

Giving life to others involves “losing” our own preoccupations and interests

There is a type of “good” that one does in an abstract or conceptual way. The disciples insist that one should belong to a certain circle in order to be able to perform this good. Then there is the type of good that is brought about by the shedding of one’s blood. We cannot be real fathers unless we pay with our very lives for the happiness of our children. We cannot become mothers in the fullest sense of the word unless we are willing to shed our blood for our children. We cannot be brothers in the fullest sense of the word unless we renounce in our bodies that which must be renounced in order to bring about communion. To truly love others always involves losing one’s own privileges, one’s own prerogatives. If we wish to walk with others then we have walk at the pace of others and lose our own pace. We must move out of our own privileged circles and prerogatives.

These sayings of Jesus are not directed to someone else! I must be routinely “cut off” my hands and feet in order to love others

The Lord Jesus, in order not to lose a single brother or sister, was literally cut to the flesh. This is the law of love. It is not possible to have brothers or sister or friends, or to found a church and maintain it in existence, without “striking” at one’s own body. These sayings of Jesus regarding the cutting off of an arm or a leg are not sayings that are directed at someone else! These are things that all of us must do thousands of times. We must “cut off our hands” and renounce certain actions of ours in order to love others. We must “cut off our feet” and not go where we would like to go in order that we are available to love others. It is not possible to take care of a sick person without renunciations of this very sort. It is not possible to take care of an elderly person, or raise a family, without restrictions of ones’ own movements. We live in a society where everything is centred on the values of the single individual. But without the capacity for self-renunciation, the individual is doomed to solitude and can never achieve true communion with others.

The renunciation that Jesus is referring to is not some kind of cold philosophical stoicism. What Jesus is speaking about is the action of God breaking through our terror of individual-preservation and opening us to the fullness of life and truth. What loss is a hand if as a result I have communion with others? What loss is a foot if others are led to happiness because of me? What is it that really matters in life? Is renunciation of this sort really a loss, or is it a gain?