September 27, 2015
Sunday, 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Num 11:25-29
2nd Reading: Jas 5:1-6
Gospel:
Mk 9:38-43, 45, 47-48
John said to him, “Master, we saw someone who drove out demons by calling upon your name, and we tried to forbid him because he does not belong to our group.” Jesus answered, “Do not forbid him, for no one who works a mi-racle in my name can soon after speak evil of me. For whoever is not against us is for us.
If anyone gives you a drink of water because you belong to Christ and bear his name, truly, I say to you, he will not go without reward.
If anyone should cause one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble and sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a great millstone around his neck.
If your hand makes you fall into sin, cut it off! It is better for you to enter life without a hand than with two hands to go to hell, to the fire that never goes out.
And if your eye makes you fall into sin, tear it out! It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than, keeping both eyes, to be thrown into hell where the worms that eat them never die, and the fire never goes out.
D@iGITAL-
EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in
the Assimilated Life
Experience)
The suggestion to dismember our body to avoid sin is not to be taken literally. The contrary opinion would disable everyone because “even a just man falls seven times a day”. The whole point of today’s Gospel reading is to avoid sin, even if it should cost one’s head – indeed even to the point of losing one’s life. Avoidance of sin is worth any sacrifice no matter how harsh because it always saves the whole person in the end. While we strive to balance the needs of the soul and the body, the needs of the soul should prevail if conflict arises. The reason obviously is that while the body dies anyway, the soul does not. “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul” (Matt. 10:28).
In olden times, three things were considered hindrances to salvation, namely: the World, Evil and the Body (W.E.B.). Priests and religious have taken up the challenge of getting rid of these hindrances by the practice of the following evangelical counsels, namely, chastity, poverty and obedience. Chastity counters enslavement by the body, poverty enslavement by the world of materialism, and obedience enslavement by the power of evil that corrupts the will of a person.
Not all of us are called to practice these vows. But we too are invited to take the challenge in ways suited to our particular way of life, even if it should cost us an arm and a leg.— Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: [email protected]. Website: www.frdan.org. q q q
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