09.06.2024 – St. Patrick Catholic Church, Largo, FL

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Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother

Genesis 3:9-15, Psalm 130, 2Corinthians 4:13-5:1, Mark 3:20-35

Today´s readings remind us of the persistent and ever evident problem of evil in our world. Evil in our world is clearly visible in the many forms of broken human relationships. Many thought systems, theories and philosophies have attempted to answer the question of how evil entered into the world and how evil could be eventually conquered. The first reading reminds us that evil entered the world through man’s disobedience to God and the Gospel reading demonstrate how evil is eventually conquered through man’s obedience to God. Evil comes both from outside man and also from within. The human condition with its experience of disharmony in human relationships and in our relationship with God is presented as a fall from the ideal, and this disharmony which is the essence of evil, is the result of sin.

Jesus makes a critical statement in today´s gospel. “How can Satan cast out Satan?” In other words, how can evil overcome evil? How can disharmony overcome or cure disharmony? How can a house divided solve the question of division? The cure for evil is the good; the cure for disharmony is harmony and the cure for disunity is unity; the cure for hatred is love; the cure for fights, quarrels, conflicts is true justice and peace. To heal from a particular vice that torments you, that hold you captive, or makes you a slave, you will need to cultivate a virtue; because a vice cannot overcome another vice. It takes some form of positivity to root out negativity. So, when Jesus asks, “How can Satan cast out Satan,” it is simply not possible. Only God can cast out Satan. Only the children of God, the children of Light, can overcome the darkness of evil in our world. That is why you and I, who believe in God, who believe in the power of Christ must be true lights in the world.

Jesus makes another powerful statement in the gospel today “whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” And what exactly is this will of God? Certainly, it is not the will of God that we fight and quarrel among ourselves. It is not the will of God that we injure each other. It is rather the will of God that we live as brothers and sisters, promoting and maintaining bonds of harmony, unity and love. When we recite each day the “Our Father” we are also asking God to help us to be true brothers and sisters.

Another important issue in the gospel is the attitude of the scribes, their cynical reaction to Jesus. They know that Jesus has God in him yet they do not recognise him. They see but they act like they are blind to all the good things he is doing. Instead they accuse him of being a magician or sorcery. This is an example of pride. Pride, the desire to make oneself the arbiter of all that is good, motivates them to see in Jesus not the visible power of the Spirit of God, but a trick of the devil. What seemed to be good they could not deny but they only reinterpret, in order to hold on to their own fixed position. We see how many people have been falsely accused and condemned because of our pride and the lack of humility to acknowledge the good in others, or the acknowledge our misguided judgements and seek for forgiveness.

Jesus reminds us against having a closed mentality and all forms of pride. We must be ready to see God’s goodness in unexpected places. We need true openness and humility in embracing each other. “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother mean that to belong to Jesus, to belong to God´s family is open to all; the only condition is our readiness to commit oneself to doing the Father’s will. This was the commitment that Adam and Eve failed to make but which is opened up to us in Christ.

Have we been in the past agents of division and conflict in our families, household? Or agents of division in our community, in the Church group? Then we can ask God to forgive us, and then resolve rather to be instruments of peace, harmony, building-up of the family, the community and the church for as the Psalmist todays reminds us “with the Lord there is mercy, and fullness of redemption.”

St. Paul reminds us that some of the things we fight for, quarrel about, struggle for, kill each other for; the things that lead us into sin, vices; the things that cause so much disharmony and disunity among us are so temporary because the earthly tent for which we live in now will eventually be destroyed. We should instead acquire virtues that will well us up to eternal life with God.