Educating means bringing to light.

XXVI Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B - 29 September 2024
Roman Rite
Nm 11,25-29; Ps 18; Jas 5,1-6; Mk 9,38-43.45.47-48

Ambrosian rite
Dt 6,1-9; Ps 118; Rom 13,8-14a; Lk 10,25-37
Sunday after the Martyrdom of Saint John the Precursor.


1) On the journey with Life that gives life and rules of life.

The passage from the Gospel of Mark that is proposed in this 26th Sunday of ordinary time narrates two episodes. 

In the first, John points out to Christ that there is someone who casts out demons in His name without being among His disciples. Jesus rightly points out that every good work, from whatever part it comes, is always well received because the source of goodness and love is God himself. Who does good is always and anyway on the side of Christ and of God. Jesus' response to John regarding the exorcist who is not part of the group of disciples, is inspired by great tolerance and it is identical to the attitude taken by Moses towards Eldad and Medad during exodus (Nm 11,24-30 - First reading of today’s mass).

In the second episode, Jesus exhorts the disciples not to scandalize the "little ones", that is, the sisters and brothers who are still immature in faith by alienating them from the Gospel with an incorrect conduct and a behavior not in accordance with the Gospel. To make this admonition, the Messiah uses harsh words: "If your hand is a cause of scandal, cut it. And your hand is a cause of scandal to you, cut it off: it is better for you to enter life with one hand alone, rather than with two hands go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire. And if your foot is a cause of scandal to you, cut it off: it is better for you to enter life with one foot only, instead of being thrown into the Gehenna with two feet. And if your eye is a cause of scandal to you, throw it away: it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye only, instead of being thrown with two eyes in the Gehenna, where their worm does not die and the fire does not extinguish" (Mk 9, 45.47-48.) With these words, Jesus invites the disciples to an attitude inspired by humility, understanding, and sacrifice to avoid the scandal that obscures the light of the Gospel.

We could formulate the invitation of Christ with the words that, in "The Announcement to Mary" by Paul Claudel, the now blind protagonist, Violaine, speaks to those who enjoy the gift of sight: "But you who see, what have you done with the light?"

If we know how to convert first our heart then those who live next to us, even if they are not believers, we will understand that Jesus is not an incomprehensible and unacceptable theological formula in our minds, but the life of God in our hearts and light for our footsteps. And even if they do not change their religion, they will change their heart, becoming more open, tolerant, and free.

Jesus asks the disciples, and therefore us, to have his thought that does not reject anyone and his same look that recognizes even the smallest signs of faith, as the gift of a simple glass of water that, if given to a "little one", "will condition" the final judgment when the Son of man will judge all the peoples of the earth.

Total opening, without any barriers of space and time, is shown precisely by Jesus with his incarnation and death on the cross, united to all humanity. In every man and woman of the earth a mysterious and deep relationship with Jesus Christ is possible. The Christian community is also called to broaden its boundaries to consider everyone in some way as its children, even those who do not have a full knowledge/experience of Jesus.

 If "smallness" is the deep physiognomy of the life of the believer, even a hand, a foot and an eye can hurt and hinder it - in the sense of making scandal, stumbling - the presence of the Lord in us. Small is a glass of water and the little ones know how to appreciate it, not failing to thank, especially when it is received in the name of Jesus.

2) The name of Jesus.

The name: "Jesus" is “to be used" not only to serve it but to belong to him. The fact is that those who work in his name can do great things, starting with the apostles who belong to Jesus Christ. But who is of Christ? The disciples who follow him but do not become owners of Christ. When Christians believed they had a monopoly on Jesus, they ran the risk of being intolerant. Good, in all its forms, is the right and duty of every man. Jesus and the Spirit are present wherever one does good. In the previous page, the disciples divided among themselves in the name of their own self. Here they divide from others in the name of their own selves. Only the "Name" of Jesus is the root of unity among all. Scandal is everything that prevents someone from following God to reach salvation. Rather than make even one to lose his or her  faith, it would be better to die.

This certainly does not mean to put in the background or even vanish the commitment of the announcement and the call to convert to the Gospel, as some might think. It should not be forgotten that witness and proclamation are an integral part of the authentic Christian faith, which cannot conceal the immense joy of having encountered the Lord. If I do not hide the fact of being a convinced and practicing Christian, every gesture of friendship, of help, of exchange that I carry out is a proclamation, just as every word and gesture of Jesus was, even before he declared: "I am the Son of God".  From the New Testament, the "duty" of the proclamation clearly emerges: "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mk 16:15). "It is not a boast for me to preach the gospel; it is a duty for me: woe unto me if I do not preach the gospel!" (1 Cor 9:16). "Always be ready to answer anyone who asks you the reason for the hope that is in you ... with sweetness and respect and with the right conscience" (1 Pt 3:15-16).

Jesus' first appeal is to a "conversion of heart”, and He asks his disciples not to put the other in preconceived schemes, but to welcome him and listen to him. Listen to the symphony of a child’s groaning, of a poor man’s groaning, to bring them the tenderness of God. Listen to the words of the world and give back the Word, because everything about human adventure concerns each one of us: "I am a man and nothing that is human is foreign to me" (Terentius).

The answer of Jesus, the man without barriers, is one that can mark a turning point in history: men are all ours, as we are of all. First the man. "When a man dies, do not ask yourself for whom the bell rings: it always rings a little for you" (John Donne). All are ours. We are all one in Christ Jesus.

But the announcement of Jesus is even more courageous: it leads us not to feel like strangers. It asks us to love our neighbor and to live life as a sharing: it leads us to live many lives, the stories of others as if they were ours. He gives us a hundred brothers and sisters, a hundred hearts to rest upon, a hundred lips to quench our thirst, a hundred mouths, of whom we are the voice, that do not know to Whom to shout to.

 It is true, as I said above, that today’s Gospel ends with harsh words: "If your hand, your foot, your eye scandalize you, cut them off, throw them away". Gospel of the wounds, scandalous and luminous as the stigmata of Jesus. In fact, the words of Christ are not an invitation to a useless self-mutilation, they are instead a figurative incisive language to convey the seriousness with which one must think about the essential things. Even losing what is precious to us, like a hand and an eye, is not comparable to the damage that comes from having a wrong life. The Lord invites us to fear more a failed life than the painful wounds of life.

A special way of welcoming Christ and the wounds of his love for us is that of the consecrated Virgins in the world. To be a virgin means keeping the spousal character of one’s body intact for the Lord. A virgin does not waste, does not seek life in other human beings, in flesh and blood, but she seeks it in God. It takes a lot of maturity and a lot of faith to cut off the ill affectivity towards people and to wait with fidelity and perseverance for the Lord who comes. It is necessary to have a concrete experience of being with the Lord, not just a theoretical knowledge. If one has a weak faith, he or she stops praying, lives in solitude, does not want to take responsibility for adult life, and risks seriously. He or she may retain physical virginity, but losing its sense he or she will become selfish or narcissistic, cynical or embittered, sour or an affective vampire. Saint Augustine says that a virginity without humility is not needed.

 Being virgin in the soul means to be free from idols, not to worship oneself or others, but to be only for God. 

Consecrated virginity is not a means of preserving oneself, a burial of one’s talent underground to return it one day intact ; it is rather a means of self-giving, accepting certain renunciations only to be able to give everything to God and more to the neighbor.

            "Christian virginity is the experience of intimate, exclusive, indissoluble spousal union with the divine Spouse who gave himself to humanity without reserve and forever, and in this way acquired a holy people, the Church. Inscribed in the human creature as a capacity to live communion in the difference between man and woman, for consecrated virgins spousal is an experience of the transcendence and of the surprising condescension of God; the consecration is accomplished through the covenant of alliance and fidelity that unites the virgin to the Lord in mystical marriage, to make ever deeper and fuller participation in his feelings and conformation to his will to love" (Ecclesiae Sponsae Imago, n. 24)