A Homily for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)
[“The Last Judgement” by Fra Angelico]
The Gospel is always so very rich, so there are always so many things one can reflect on. This weekend’s Gospel reading is no exception. It seems that Jesus is talking about evangelization, sin and scandal, and even hell. All in one very brief passage. How do we make sense of all of it? Or should we just focus on one aspect at a time?
I think that there is a reason for these themes to be together in this passage from St. Mark’s Gospel. First we have the disciples concern about someone using Jesus’ name to drive out demons. Jesus tells the disciples to do nothing to prevent him. Why? Because “whoever is not against us is for us.” Jesus was warning the disciples against developing an attitude of exclusiveness.
Christianity is not a club that one joins. It is a life. It is a recognition that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and a conscious choice to unite ourselves to Christ Jesus so to share in His life. Jesus is pointing out to the disciples that no one could work good works in His name if they did not have real faith in Him as the Messiah, as the Son of God. Our desire should be to share the Good News that we have recognized in Jesus with everyone, and we should recognize anyone who is proclaiming that Good News as a brother or sister in Christ Jesus. This is especially true today as it is very common for us to interact with people of other Christian denominations. While we should not ignore the real doctrinal differences that exist between our Protestant and Orthodox brothers and sisters and we of the Catholic Faith, at the same time we should respect the lively faith that they have, and rejoice in the grace of God that is at work among them. And, of course, we should pray, as Christ Himself did on the night before His death, that we may all be one.
This broadmindedness, however, is not unlimited. Just as Jesus wants to emphasize the generosity of God’s love in rewarding those who serve Him, Jesus also wants us to take sin very seriously. That is why in St. Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says the opposite of what He said in today’s reading from St. Mark’s Gospel, “Whoever is not with me is against me” (Matt. 12:30). In the end there is no neutral ground in relation to Jesus: sooner or later we all must make a choice either to be on His side or to oppose Him.
It is to provide this balance that we have the second group of sayings in today’s Gospel. If God graciously rewards small acts of kindness, He will also severely punish acts of evil. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, “Scandal is an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil. The person who gives scandal becomes his neighbor’s tempter” (CCC #2284). People who are in positions of authority take on a particular gravity of scandal because their bad example can have a greater influence on others. We are all sinners in need of redemption, and God offers His mercy to all people. As Christians we should be quick to offer forgiveness to those who sin and seek forgiveness. Scandal is not simply the fact that someone does something sinful. Scandal is when the person says, through their words or actions, that their sinful behavior is not really bad, thus encouraging others to do the same thing.
Jesus mixes no words in condemning scandal. For the Jewish people at that time, drowning a person was the most cruel way of killing someone, so to fix a “great millstone,” literally meaning one that only a donkey could turn, around someone’s neck and then casting them into the sea was a most horrible punishment.
Then there are all those sayings about Gehenna. Gehenna was a valley to the southeast of Jerusalem. It was a place where some Israelites gravely turned their backs on God, by burning their children to death as a sacrifice to the pagan god Moloch. Due to the horrible nature of this sin, one of Israel’s good kings desecrated the valley by turning it into a garbage dump. By the time of Jesus, the place reeked and there were constant fires. Also by that time, Gehenna had become a visible symbol for hell, the place of eternal punishment for those who oppose God.
Hell is not a popular subject today. When I was in the seminary I heard a priest tell a group of parishioners that we need to remember that there are two options after death – heaven and purgatory. He thought he was being so very “traditional” by mentioning purgatory. When I asked him later about hell, he told me, “no one believes in hell any more.” So, just to be clear – hell is real. Jesus plainly teaches that there are two possible destinations for us after death – heaven or hell (purgatory is a prelude to heaven, a final cleansing for make us ready for heaven). Heaven is the eternal joy of union with God, and hell is the eternal misery of separation from God. We might not feel comfortable talking about hell, but it is a most necessary fact. We would have no freedom if we did not have the option of saying “no” to God.
The truth that Jesus conveys in today’s Gospel reading is that we choose our own destiny. With every decision we make, with every action we take over the course of our lifetime we are orientating ourselves either to heaven or to hell, and at the moment of death we embrace what has truly become our choice. As C.S. Lewis put it, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell” (C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce, pp. 72-73).
Jesus’ warning should arouse a healthy hatred for sin within us. We must be willing to make the changes in our lives so to choose eternal salvation. While Jesus does not want us to really start cutting off body parts, He does really want us to make really changes in our lives. Are we willing to give up HBO or Showtime if they lead us into temptation? What about a job or an unhealthy relationship? Maybe it is an unhealthy pleasure or entertainment. We need to take our eternal destination seriously. Do we want to make ourselves fit for heaven or for hell? The choice is up to us.
