February 27, 2025
Thursday of the
Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 344
Reading 1
Rely not on your wealth;
say not: ""I have the power.""
Rely not on your strength
in following the desires of your heart.
Say not: ""Who can prevail against me?""
or, ""Who will subdue me for my deeds?""
for God will surely exact the punishment.
Say not: ""I have sinned, yet what has befallen me?""
for the Most High bides his time.
Of forgiveness be not overconfident,
adding sin upon sin.
Say not: ""Great is his mercy;
my many sins he will forgive.""
For mercy and anger alike are with him;
upon the wicked alights his wrath.
Delay not your conversion to the LORD,
put it not off from day to day.
For suddenly his wrath flames forth;
at the time of vengeance you will be destroyed.
Rely not upon deceitful wealth,
for it will be no help on the day of wrath.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (40:5a) Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Receive the word of God, not as the word of men,
but as it truly is, the word of God.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus said to his disciples:
""Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink
because you belong to Christ,
amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward.
""Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to
sin,
it would be better for him if a great millstone
were put around his neck
and he were thrown into the sea.
If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.
It is better for you to enter into life maimed
than with two hands to go into Gehenna,
into the unquenchable fire.
And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off.
It is better for you to enter into life crippled
than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna.
And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.
Better for you to enter into the Kingdom of God with one eye
than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna,
where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.
""Everyone will be salted with fire.
Salt is good, but if salt becomes insipid,
with what will you restore its flavor?
Keep salt in yourselves and you will have peace with one another.""
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022725.cfm
Commentary on Sirach
5:1-8
The passage speaks of our attitudes to wealth, power and
false confidence and consists of a number of distinct pieces of advice on how
we should behave. It comes from the first part of a 22-line poetic arrangement
of warnings on the disastrous consequences of false presumptions, wrong speech
and shameful behaviour. It is particularly directed against the evils of the
rich, which tend to pride and a sense of independence, presumption, false
security and no regrets for what they do. People who behave in this way are
playing a very dangerous game.
The passage begins:
Do not rely on your wealth
or say, “I have enough.”
There are some who believe that with wealth they can get or
have anything, or that wealth will give them power to control and manipulate
others. Money alone is never enough. Having money has little to do with wisdom
or happiness.
Do not follow your inclination and strength
in pursuing the desires of your heart.
The “desires of our heart” can lead us very far astray and
bring about our own self-destruction. Pleasure and happiness are two very
different things.
Do not say, “Who can have power over me?”
for the Lord will surely punish you.
Wealth can give one a sense of total self-sufficiency, a
belief that with money one can get anything one wants, and that one is
answerable to no one. And yet, the rich person is, in many respects, just as
vulnerable as one who is materially destitute. A tiny blood clot in the wrong
place can bring a sudden end to everything. The ultimate life decisions are
never ours.
Do not say, “I sinned, yet what has happened to me?”
for the Lord is slow to anger.
One may be very aware of leading a life which is immoral and
unjust, but nothing bad has happened so one keeps acting immorally. That is
because “the Lord is slow to anger”. This phrase comes from the time the Israelites
rebelled against God at Mount Sinai. But instead of punishing them, Yahweh gave
them a second chance and told them:
The Lord, the Lord,
a God merciful and gracious,
slow to anger,
and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin… (Exod 34:6-7)
God’s bias is towards forgiveness and mercy, but there is a
limit. In the end, sin and immorality will have to be paid for. The unrepentant
wrongdoers put themselves outside God’s mercy.
Do not be so confident of forgiveness
that you add sin to sins.
This is similar to the previous injunction. We can be sure
of God’s forgiveness when we repent, but it never justifies our deliberately
continuing to act in ways that are evil and immoral, like someone who says he
will continue his sinful life, but will make a ‘good confession’ at the end.
Once aware of behaving in ways that are in disharmony with the Way shown to us
by Jesus, we must abandon such behaviour now.
Do not say, “His mercy is great;
he will forgive the multitude of my sins,”
for both mercy and wrath are with him,
and his anger will rest on sinners.
This is another similar warning. Yes, God’s mercy is great
and his forgiveness is always there for us, but as long as we are turned away
from him, we close the door on that mercy and forgiveness. The Prodigal Son
could only be reconciled when he came to his senses and turned back to his
Father.
Do not delay to turn back to the Lord,
and do not postpone it from day to day,
for suddenly the wrath of the Lord will come forth,
and at the time of punishment you will perish.
Repentance must follow immediately on our awareness of going
the wrong way. If God comes for us and we are facing in the wrong direction,
knowingly doing what we know to be very wrong, we may hear those terrible
words:
Truly I tell you, I do not know you. (Matt
25:12)
And, of course, we do not know when he will come for us. But
we do know that it can happen very suddenly and to anyone.
Finally, the passage says:
Do not rely on dishonest wealth,
for it will not benefit you on the day of calamity.
Immorally acquired wealth may get us far in the world of
business and the world of expensive indulgence, but it will do nothing for us
on the day we hear the final call. We remember Jesus’ parable about the rich
fool, who felt so rich that he could put his feet up and have a long life of
enjoyment ahead of him (Luke 12:13-21). How wrong he was! All that matters is
here and now to find, to recognise and to serve Jesus in every other person,
especially those in need of any kind.
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Commentary on Mark
9:41-50
Today’s Gospel speaks of ‘scandal’. It is a much used
word in our media today and not always with the same meaning that we find in
the Gospel. In our time it tends to refer to behaviour which we do not
expect from certain individuals or classes of people. We read about it
and we say, “How terrible! How wicked!” In the Gospel, however,
‘scandals’ are stumbling blocks which impede one’s journey along Christ’s
Way. If a head of state behaves inappropriately with someone in his or her
office, that may be scandalous in the media sense, but it is not likely to
affect the living out of one’s own Christian faith.
The Way of Christ is expressed in love and compassion and,
wherever that happens, the action is noted and rewarded. So anyone who
gives a disciple even a drink of water, precisely because that person is known
to be a follower of Christ, will not go unrewarded. That ‘anyone’ is to
be taken with full literalness. It could be a person of a completely
different religion or of none. And one would hope that we would do
exactly the same in return.
On the other hand, anyone who corrupts the beliefs of a
simple believer is only fit for a fate worse than death. And that applies
most of all to fellow believers who, by their actions, can be an obstacle to a
person following Christ or coming to know Christ.
But even within ourselves, there can be things in our lives
which can block our living out of the Gospel message. A wandering hand
may steal, may hurt, may sexually abuse; it would be better to be without a
hand than to allow it to do such things. A wandering foot may bring us to
places where we are corrupted or cause corruption to others. It would be
better to be crippled than to be involved in such things. A wandering eye can
result in our treating other people, however beautiful and attractive, as mere
objects of desire and may lead to worse things. We can read stories or visit
websites which may lead us to thoughts and actions harmful both to ourselves
and others—there are many possibilities. Blindness would be a lesser evil.
Obviously, Jesus is not urging us to carry out such
amputations literally. His point is to warn us of the many things which
can be stumbling blocks in our Christian lives. Perhaps we could reflect
a little today and try to enumerate the things that get between us and our
following of Jesus.
Jesus says in today’s Gospel:
…everyone will be salted with fire…
To be salted is to be purified and kept from
corruption. This can refer either to penalties by which a sinner is
punished and at the same time preserved, or to the purifying trials through
which we are made more faithful followers. This is the kind of
‘amputation’ that can apply to those who have caused scandal.
This purification can happen through the trials which the
Christian is likely to face in the faithful living out of the Gospel. But if
the salt itself loses its taste, what can be used to give taste back to it?
Rather:
Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one
another.
Good “salt”, that which ‘seasons’ us, seems to be the inner
essence of the message of Jesus. It is certainly the key to peace in our
own hearts and in our relationships with those around us. And if that
salt is within us, we are not likely to be a stumbling block to others looking
for Christ and his Way.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/
Thursday, February 27, 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: 41-50
Jesus said to his disciples: "Anyone who gives you a
cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, amen, I say to you, will
surely not lose his reward. "Whoever causes one of these little ones who
believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put
around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to
sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter
into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna,
into the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut if off. It
is better for you to enter into life crippled than with two feet to be thrown
into Gehenna. And if your eye causes you
to sin, pluck it out. Better for you to enter into the
Kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown
into Gehenna, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.
"Everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if salt becomes
insipid, with what will you restore its flavor? Keep salt in yourselves and you
will have peace with one another."
Reflection
Today’s Gospel narrates some advice from Jesus on the relationship
of adults with the little ones and the excluded. At that time, many persons
were excluded and marginalized. They could not participate. Many of them would
lose their faith. The text on which we are going to meditate now contains
strange affirmations which, if taken literally,
cause perplexity in the reader.
• Mark 9: 41 - A glass of water will be
rewarded. A phrase from Jesus is inserted here: If anyone gives you a cup
of water to drink because you belong to Christ, then in truth I tell you, he
will most certainly not lose his reward. Two thoughts: 1) “Anyone who gives you
a cup of water to drink.” Jesus is going to Jerusalem to give His life. A
gesture of great donation! But He does not forget
the small gestures in life each day: a cup of water, an act
of acceptance or kindness, to give alms, so many gestures. Anyone who rejects
and despises the brick will never be able to construct a house! 2) “… because
you belong to Christ”: Jesus identifies Himself with us who want to belong to
Him. This
means that for Him we have great value. The word here is because, not if. To give a cup of water because
the receiver belongs to Christ also acknowledges Christ! In this act of
kindness, the giver is also acknowledging Christ by his action.
• Mark 9: 42 - Who is a cause of scandal for
these little ones. Scandal,
literally, it is a stone along the road, a stone in the shoe. It is what leads
a person away from the right path. To
scandalize the little ones is to be the cause of why the little ones go
away from the right path and lose their faith in God. Anyone who does this
receives the following sentence: “It
would have been better to be thrown into the sea with a great millstone hung round
his neck!” Jesus identifies Himself with the little ones (Mt 23: 40-45). Today,
in the whole world, many little ones, many poor people, are leaving the traditional
churches. Every year, in Latin America, approximately three million people
leave to other churches.
They cannot believe what we profess! Why does this happen?
Is this an action taken in full
knowledge and as a definitive statement? Is it based on a lack of understanding
or teaching? Up to what point are we to be blamed for this? Do we also merit
having a millstone round our neck?
• Mark 9: 43-48 - To cut off your hand and your
foot and to tear out your eye. Jesus orders the person to cut off the hand,
the foot, to tear out the eye, in the case in which they are cause of scandal.
And He says: “It is better to enter into
life or into the Kingdom with one foot (hand, eye) than to be thrown into hell
with two feet, (hands, eyes).” These phrases are not to be taken literally,
but rather, that there is nothing so important that it should be retained if it
were to keep a person from entering the
Kingdom. They mean that the person has to be rooted in his/her choice of God
and of the Gospel. It might seem obvious that a person can’t be more attached
to something than their own hand or foot,
but many are – to their money, their car or house, their
social position, or even more trivial things. It is better to cut off the things
that are not in alignment with the priorities of the Kingdom.
• The expression “hell”, where their worm will never die nor
their fire be put out”, is an image to indicate the situation of a person who
remains without God. “Gehenna”
was the name of a valley near Jerusalem.
Jeremiah condemns it (II Kings 23: 10; Jer 7: 31; 32: 35 et al.; see Moloch) as a place where children were cult
sacrificed, which is the predominant rabbinical thought. Rabbi David Kimhi’s
commentary (ca. 1200 AD) stated it was where the trash of the city was thrown
and where a fire was always burning to burn the trash. This place, terrible
either way, full of stench, was used by the people to symbolize the situation
of the person who did not participate in the Kingdom of God.
• Mark 9: 49-50 - Salt and Peace. These two verses help
us to understand the severe words on scandal. Jesus says: “Have salt in
yourselves and be at peace with one another!” The community, in which the
members live in peace with one another,
is like a bit of salt which gives flavor to all the meal. To live in peace and
fraternally in the community is the salt that gives flavor to the life of the
people of the community. It is a sign of the Kingdom, a revelation of the Good News of God. Are we salt? The
salt which does not give flavor is good for nothing! Has our salt become
insipid?
• Jesus accepts and defends the life of the
little ones. Several times, Jesus insists that little ones should be
accepted. “Anyone who welcomes a little child in my name welcomes me” (Mk 9:
37). Anyone who gives a cup of water to one of these little ones will not lose
his reward (Mt 10: 42). He asks not to despise little ones (Mt 18: 10). And at
the final judgment the just will be received because
they would have given something to eat “to one of these
little ones” (Mt 25: 40). If Jesus insists so much on acceptance of the little
ones, it is because there are many simple people considered less, who are not
accepted! In fact, women and children were not taken into account (Mt 14: 21;
15: 38), they were despised (Mt 18:10) and reduced to silence (Mt 21: 15-16). Even the Apostles prevented the
children from getting close to Jesus (Mt 19: 13-14). In the name of the Law of
God, misinterpreted by the religious authority of the time, many good people
were excluded. Instead of welcoming the excluded, the law was used to
legitimize the exclusion. In the Gospels, the expression “little ones” (in
Greek it is said elachisto,
mikroi or nepioi), sometimes indicates “the children”, and other times it
indicates the sections excluded by society. It is not easy to discern.
Sometimes the “little ones” in the Gospel means “the children.” This because
the children belonged to the category
of the “little ones,” of the excluded. Besides, it is not always easy to discern
between what comes from the time of Jesus and that which comes from the time of
the communities for which the Gospels were written. Even if things were like
this, what is clear is the context of
exclusion which reigned at the time and which the first communities kept from Jesus: He places
Himself on the side of the little ones and the excluded and takes up their
defense.
Personal Questions
• Today in our
society and in our community, who are the little ones and the excluded? How are
they accepted on our part?
• “Anyone who
welcomes a little child in my name welcomes me” (Mk 9: 37). How does this apply
to welcoming a child versus abortion in our society?
• We spoke of “Anyone
who is not against us is for us” yesterday, and its relation to other Christian
doctrinal interpretations. We talk about ecumenism. Today we talked about so
many people leaving to other churches. These are various views on the same
thing. How do they fit together?
• “A millstone round
the neck” Does my behavior deserve a millstone or a cord round the neck? What
does the behavior of our community deserve?
Concluding Prayer
The Lord forgives all your offenses, cures all your diseases,
He redeems your life from the abyss, crowns you with faithful love and
tenderness. (Ps 103: 3-4)
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