FEBRUARY 26, 2025: WEDNESDAY OF THE SEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

 

February 26, 2025

 

Wednesday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 343

 

Reading 1

Sirach 4:11-19

Wisdom breathes life into her children
and admonishes those who seek her.
He who loves her loves life;
those who seek her will be embraced by the Lord.
He who holds her fast inherits glory;
wherever he dwells, the LORD bestows blessings.
Those who serve her serve the Holy One;
those who love her the LORD loves.
He who obeys her judges nations;
he who hearkens to her dwells in her inmost chambers.
If one trusts her, he will possess her;
his descendants too will inherit her.
She walks with him as a stranger
and at first she puts him to the test;
Fear and dread she brings upon him
and tries him with her discipline
until she try him by her laws and trust his soul.
Then she comes back to bring him happiness
and reveal her secrets to them
and she will heap upon him
treasures of knowledge and an understanding of justice.
But if he fails her, she will abandon him
and deliver him into the hands of despoilers.

 

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 119:165, 168, 171, 172, 174, 175

R. (165a)  O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.
Those who love your law have great peace,
and for them there is no stumbling block.
R. O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.
I keep your precepts and your decrees,
for all my ways are before you.
R. O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.
My lips pour forth your praise,
because you teach me your statutes.
R. O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.
May my tongue sing of your promise,
for all your commands are just.
R. O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.
I long for your salvation, O LORD,
and your law is my delight.
R. O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.
Let my soul live to praise you,
and may your ordinances help me.
R. O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.

 

Alleluia

John 14:6

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the way and the truth and the life, says the Lord;
no one comes to the Father except through me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

 

Gospel

Mark 9:38-40

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."

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022625.cfm

 

Commentary on Sirach 4:11-19

Today’s passage deals with Wisdom, personified as an educator:

Wisdom teaches her children
and takes hold of those who seek her.

There then follows a series of comments about the qualities and effects of Wisdom in people’s lives. The precious fruits of Wisdom—life, favour, blessings and God’s love—are intended to arouse desire for her. Whoever loves her loves life, and those who wait on her early will be filled with happiness.

This will naturally happen, because it is through Wisdom that we come to a fuller understanding of what a true life is all about, and with the living out of that understanding comes happiness.

To adhere to Wisdom is to pave the way to inherit final glory:

…the Lord blesses the place she enters.

Where there is Wisdom, there is God. There is an echo here of entering the Temple, the place where God is present:

Those who serve her minister to the Holy One;
the Lord loves those who love her.

In a similar context, her disciples are like priests, who enter into the holy places of the Temple to find God. For God himself is the source of all Wisdom; there is only one Truth. As we come closer to that truth we come close to God:

Whoever obeys her will judge the nations,
and whoever listens to her will live securely.

Wisdom’s adherents are like judges. True wisdom gives one criteria by which to evaluate the world around one, and those who “listen to her” will experience a sense of security. They have a sense that they are in the right place and doing the right things.

People who remain faithful to God’s call—especially as it comes to us through the Word of God—will continually seek to open themselves to receive Wisdom and be enriched by it. Seekers of Wisdom are here seen as faithful marriage partners, who open themselves fully to each other.  And what they learn will be passed on to those who come after. Thanks to our forebears, we are indeed the recipients of centuries of Wisdom passed on to us.

However, there is another dimension to Wisdom which we should be ready for. In our search for the truth, there is no guarantee of an easy life:

For at first she will walk with them in disguise;
she will bring fear and dread upon them
and will torment them by her discipline…

Indeed, it is often through the most painful and frightening experiences of life as we come face to face with failure, disappointment, sickness and death, that we gradually grow into real wisdom about the most important things in life.

On the other hand, to go our own way and to abandon the search for Wisdom and wisdom is to give up the search for truth and the way of love. There is no future there—only self-destruction.

As we said before, the acquisition of wisdom does not just come from the piling up of knowledge and information. It does not require a high level of literacy. Even the most illiterate person can be steeped in wisdom. The greatest teacher of wisdom is our immersion in life and in finding God’s Truth, Goodness and Beauty embedded in every experience of life, even the most painful.

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Commentary on Mark 9:38-40

There is another lesson for all of us in today’s brief passage.  The disciples complain to Jesus because they saw someone casting out devils in Jesus’ name.  They tried to stop him:

…because he was not following us.

Jesus tells them very clearly that they should:

…not stop him, for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us.

This is a principle we need to take seriously to heart. There can be a strong temptation among us to a kind of exclusivity.  Many Christian groups (both Catholic and people from other denominations) can fall into this trap.  As Paul tells us in one of his letters:

…the word of God is not chained. (2 Tim 2:9)

God can do his work through all kinds of people—Christians and people of other religions and of no religion.  He may even work at times through people who are ostensibly anti-religious.  Far from being resentful of others doing work which we feel belongs only to Christians, we should be overjoyed.  This is a clear sign of the Kingdom at work.  Wherever there is love, wherever there is service, there is God.

Membership in our group is not the test.  The test is whether what others do fits in with our goals of truth, love, justice, compassion, freedom, peace, non-violence and all that is good.   Our God is to be found in all these things.  The Church is a way to a further goal; it is not itself the end.  The Church is called to be a sign of the Kingdom, but is not the totality of the Kingdom. The goal is that people with good hearts and the Church are working for the good of one another and for the realisation of the Kingdom.

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Wednesday, February 26, 2025

Ordinary Time

 

Opening Prayer

Father, keep before us the wisdom and love You have revealed in Your Son. Help us to be like Him in word and deed, for He lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

Gospel Reading - Mark 9: 38-40

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."

 

Reflection

Today’s Gospel narrates quite a beautiful and actual example of the pedagogy of Jesus. It shows us how He helped His disciples to perceive and to overcome the “yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod.”

•  Mk 9: 38-40: A closed mentality: He was not one of ours” Someone who did not belong to the community used the name of Jesus to drive out devils. John, the disciple, sees this and forbids it: We have stopped him because he was not one of us. In the name of the community, he forbids that the other one can do a good deed! He thinks that being a disciple, he can have a monopoly on Jesus, and because of this, he wants to forbid that others use the name of Jesus to do good. This was the closed mentality of the “chosen People, a separated People!” Jesus responds: “You must not stop him; no one

who works a miracle in my name could soon afterwards speak evil of me. Anyone who is not against us is for us.” (Mk 9: 40). It would be very difficult to find a more ecumenical affirmation than this affirmation of Jesus. For Jesus, what is important is not if the person forms part of the community or not, but rather if the person does the good which the community should do.

•  A picture of Jesus, formator of His disciples. Jesus, the Master, is the axis, the center, and the model of formation given to the disciples. By His attitudes He is an example of the Kingdom. He embodies the love of God and reveals it (Mk 6: 31; Mt 10: 30; Lk 15: 11-32). Many small gestures show this witness of life with which Jesus marked His presence in the life of the disciples, preparing them for life and for their mission. This was His way of giving a human form to the experience which He had of God, the Father. The following is a picture of Jesus, the formator of His disciples:

• He involves them in the mission (Mk 6: 7; Lk 9 :1-2; 10: 1) when they return He reviews with them all that they have lived (Lk 10: 17-20)

• He corrects them when they fail and want to be the first ones (Mk 9: 33-35; 10: 14-15

• He waits for the opportune moment to correct them (Lk 9: 46-48; Mk 10: 14-15)

• He helps them to discern (Mk 9: 18-19)

• He challenges them when they are slow (Mk 4:13; 8:14-21)

• He prepares them to face the conflict (Jn 16: 33; Mt 10: 17-25)

• He orders them to observe reality (Mk 8: 27-29; Jn 4: 35; Mt 16: 1-3)

• He reflects with them on questions of the moment (Lk 13: 1-5)

• He confronts them with the needs of the people (Jn 6: 5)

• He teaches them that the needs of the people are above the ritual prescriptions (Mt 12: 7-12)

• He meets alone with them so as to be able to instruct them (Mk 4: 34; 7: 17; 9: 30-31; 10: 10; 13: 3)

• He knows how to listen even if the dialogue is difficult (Jn 4: 7-42)

• He helps them to accept themselves (Lk 22: 32)

• He is demanding and asks them to leave everything out of love for Him (Mk 10: 17-31)

• He is severe concerning hypocrisy (Lk 11: 37-53)

• He asks more questions than gives responses (Mk 8: 17-21)

• He is firm and does not allow himself to deviate from the right path (Mk 8: 33; Lk 9: 54)

• He prepares them for conflict and persecution (Mt 10: 16-25).

Formation was not, in the first place, the transmission of truths to be remembered, but the communication of the new experience of God and the life which radiates from Jesus for the disciples. The community which was forming around Jesus was the expression of this new experience. Formation led people to have a different way of looking, to have different attitudes. It gave them a

new conscience concerning the mission and concerning themselves. It helped them to place themselves at the side of the excluded. And soon afterwards, it produced “conversion” as a consequence of the acceptance of the Good News (Mk 1: 15).

 

Personal Questions

•  “Anyone who is not against us is for us.” How do we define “for us” and “against us” today with so many variations in Christian beliefs?

•  If someone selectively and creatively creates their own “doctrine” and interpretations of Jesus’ teachings, are they “for us” or “against us”?

•  How does my formation in Jesus take place in my life? Is it a serious, ongoing process, or whatever comes along?

•  Go back to the list of how Jesus does formation. Read each, adding the question “how does He do this for me personally?” at the end of each line. Then answer each for your own formation.

 

Concluding Prayer

Bless Yahweh, my soul, from the depths of my being, His holy name; bless

Yahweh, my soul, never forget all His acts of kindness. (Ps 103: 1-2)

 

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