26th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (B)
Sunday 29 September 2024
Mk 9:38-43,45,47-48
“If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea”.
(Mk 9:42)
In the stillness of the Sea of Galilee, where silence is only punctuated by the sound of the water, we can imagine Jesus’ masterful and authoritative presence, who walked and moved between the coastal villages. His passing -through didn’t go unnoticed. He did things never done before, forgave sins as only God can do, proclaims words that, before Him, would have been inconceivable. The Good News which the Master proclaims contains some admonitions or warnings that are enough to give us the shivers. One of these is in the verse we are considering today. ‘Scandal’ means a ‘stumbling-block’ or ‘impediment’. In short, it expresses the idea of an obstacle to taking a certain path, an obstacle that misleads, prevents someone from moving forward, or causes a person to fall. This particular example is about causing someone to deviate from the right path of faith and putting trust in God. We’re given a clear example in the Book of Genesis, when Eve is approached by the ‘scandaliser’: the devil. To a greater or lesser extent, sin always causes scandal. This is because it does not give testimony of a worthy life of faith.
What Jesus tells us today makes us reflect on the responsibility and example we give to others, especially to the little ones, to the young, to those who have recently undertaken a journey of conversion.
We are immersed in a mentality that easily distorts, interprets, waters down, manipulates or rejects the message of Jesus. Too many profess themselves as Christian in their words but then, in actions, have adopted the mentality of the world where various realities, such as divorce or abortion, are consolidated and now considered ‘almost normal’, if not even seen as progress and emancipation of the human race. And this, then, is where the words of Jesus become scandalous for the mentality of the world.
By reading and praying with the Word of the Lord, we acquire the mentality of God and His Kingdom. The Holy Spirit is the Only One who can, and wants, to write the Law of love on our hearts, and who gives us the strength to implement it day after day!
Fr. Giuseppe