Deacon Tom Anthony

Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 89

Reading 1 Gn 3:9-15

After the man, Adam, had eaten of the tree,
the LORD God called to the man and asked him, "Where are you?"
He answered, "I heard you in the garden;
but I was afraid, because I was naked,
so I hid myself."
Then he asked, "Who told you that you were naked?
You have eaten, then,
from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!"
The man replied, "The woman whom you put here with me—
she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it."
The LORD God then asked the woman,
"Why did you do such a thing?"
The woman answered, "The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it."

Then the LORD God said to the serpent:
"Because you have done this, you shall be banned
from all the animals
and from all the wild creatures;
on your belly shall you crawl,
and dirt shall you eat
all the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will strike at your head,
while you strike at his heel."

Responsorial Psalm Ps 130:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8

R. (7bc) With the Lord there is mercy, and fullness of redemption.
Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;
LORD, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to my voice in supplication.
R. With the Lord there is mercy, and fullness of redemption.
If you, O LORD, mark iniquities,
LORD, who can stand?
But with you is forgiveness,
that you may be revered.
R. With the Lord there is mercy, and fullness of redemption.
I trust in the LORD;
my soul trusts in his word.
More than sentinels wait for the dawn,
let Israel wait for the LORD.
R. With the Lord there is mercy, and fullness of redemption.
For with the LORD is kindness
and with him is plenteous redemption
and he will redeem Israel
from all their iniquities.
R. With the Lord there is mercy, and fullness of redemption.

Reading 2 2 Cor 4:13—5:1

Brothers and sisters:
Since we have the same spirit of faith,
according to what is written, I believed, therefore I spoke,
we too believe and therefore we speak,
knowing that the one who raised the Lord Jesus
will raise us also with Jesus
and place us with you in his presence.
Everything indeed is for you,
so that the grace bestowed in abundance on more and more people
may cause the thanksgiving to overflow for the glory of God.
Therefore, we are not discouraged;
rather, although our outer self is wasting away,
our inner self is being renewed day by day.
For this momentary light affliction
is producing for us an eternal weight of glory
beyond all comparison,
as we look not to what is seen but to what is unseen;
for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal.
For we know that if our earthly dwelling, a tent,
should be destroyed,
we have a building from God,
a dwelling not made with hands, eternal in heaven.

Alleluia Jn 12:31b-32

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Now the ruler of the world will be driven out, says the Lord;
and when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel Mk 3:20-35

Jesus came home with his disciples.
Again the crowd gathered,
making it impossible for them even to eat.
When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him,
for they said, "He is out of his mind."
The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said,
"He is possessed by Beelzebul,"
and "By the prince of demons he drives out demons."

Summoning them, he began to speak to them in parables,
"How can Satan drive out Satan?
If a kingdom is divided against itself,
that kingdom cannot stand.
And if a house is divided against itself,
that house will not be able to stand.
And if Satan has risen up against himself
and is divided, he cannot stand;
that is the end of him.
But no one can enter a strong man's house to plunder his property
unless he first ties up the strong man.
Then he can plunder the house.
Amen, I say to you,
all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be
forgiven them.
But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit
will never have forgiveness,
but is guilty of an everlasting sin."
For they had said, "He has an unclean spirit."

His mother and his brothers arrived.
Standing outside they sent word to him and called him.
A crowd seated around him told him,
"Your mother and your brothers and your sisters
are outside asking for you."
But he said to them in reply,
"Who are my mother and my brothers?"
And looking around at those seated in the circle he said,
"Here are my mother and my brothers.
For whoever does the will of God
is my brother and sister and mother."

My Brothers and Sisters,

 We as Christians are all united under Our Lord Jesus Christ. When Jesus came to this earth in the flesh, He established His Universal Church where it was through baptism that we became members and claimed our birthright as Children of God. The divisions within the Church are caused by us and not by Jesus. We were given something perfect and in our brokenness we caused it to be broken. This was not by Jesus’ design but by our own selfishness. Each separation can be traced back to an event which was perpetuated by human interests and nothing divinely inspired. This goes back to the first breaking off and continues to the modern day. Jesus says in the Gospel Reading today that a house divided cannot stand. He continues by saying that those who are His mothers and brothers are the ones that follow Him. If this is the case then divisions within that spiritual unity can only be observed as unnatural. We are a family with God as our Father. We are supposed to be focused on our relationship with Jesus Christ and how it can effect our lives daily and bring us closer to Him. Unfortunately, in our humanness, our own selfish desires tend to get in the way of this relationship as it does in many others.

The First Reading today reminds us how, even when we are given everything, we will still be in danger of wanting and taking more. We were in a perfect relationship with God. That is how He created us. We wanted for nothing and enjoyed everything. Yet, in our selfishness and pride, we craved more. We took more and pursued our own interests thinking that we knew better than God regarding what would make us happy. That was our condition then and this is our condition today. God is constantly pleading with us to surrender our will to Him in order to experience a better way and a better life. Even though we all know what a life without Him brings, we still struggle daily with handing it over to Him. This brings about yet another unnatural division with our relationship and within our community.

The Good News is that a realization of this condition can bring about healing. A willingness to change and to live the Christ Experience gives us the capability to overcome these obstacles that we created for ourselves. With God there is indeed chastisement but there is also consolation and mercy. What we may perceive as punishment is actually wisdom, instruction, and love. Through our benefit of experience, God is leading us to something better if we only listen to Him and acknowledge His presence. There is no need to hide from Him and dismissing Him only brings us misery. We already know this so the logical thing to do is to stop doing that which is destroying us in the first place.  What He wants is for us to embrace Him and live our lives with Him.

Jesus makes us an unbelievable promise in the Gospel Reading today:

“all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be
forgiven them.”

We come to Him broken and sinful. Nobody is exempt from this condition. Yet, just like these divisions that we have and continue to create, it is unnatural and Jesus explains that He wants to make our condition natural again. He wants us to be like we were previously: childlike, innocent, and joyful. This is the key to a fulfilling and beautiful life. We cannot be afraid to break down what we already built and start over again. We should be invigorated and excited about discovering a new way of looking at and doing things. As Paul mentioned in his letter today:

“our inner self is being renewed day by day.”

He tells us that whatever we face today is nothing in comparison to what Jesus Christ has in store for us. There is so much faith and hope in that promise. What is even better is the fact that we as Christians already know that it is true. The only reason why we are fearful to embrace that truth is that we all have this struggle with accepting that someone else has influence over our lives other than ourselves. Truly we must take a step back, let go, and let God do the work within us that He wants to do. The results will speak for themselves.

Deacon Tom