Cycle B - Year II:  

30 September 2018: Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

(Liturgical Color: Green)

Readings:

First Reading:        Numbers 11:25-29

Second Reading:   James 5:1-6

Gospel:Please Read  Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48

God's love and mercy is for all!

 The beauty of the Catholic Church is that it embraces all human beings and the rest of God's creation. Because its core teaching is based on love -- love for God and His creation.

The Catholic Church sees itself as one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church founded by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. But it does not close its door to those of other faith. Thus, it persistently works through ecumenism to reach out to other faith. Because the followers of Jesus are not meant to be an exclusive group. We are encouraged to work with other Christians, and indeed with everyone of good will.

Ecumenism takes its starting point that Christ founded just one Church, not many churches; hence, the Catholic Church has as its ultimate hope and objective that through prayer, study and dialogue, the historically separated bodies may come again to be reunited with the Catholic Church.

The Gospel narrative for this Sunday reinforces the foundation for the Catholic Church's efforts on ecumenism.

"At that time, 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.'"  (Mk 9:40)

But Jesus tells John and the other disciples not to prevent people from doing good works in His name. For Jesus said that "whoever is not against us is for us." (Mk 9:40) Because as people were learning about Jesus, they wanted to follow our Lord Jesus, and to share His message and to help other.s And Jesus wants everyone to experience the love and mercy of His Father. 

As Christians in our time, we are all called to follow our Lord Jesus Christ and to do "mighty deeds" in Jesus' name. We must keep in mind that even a small act of love, sacrifice, or giving, when we do it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, they can be "mighty" as well.

The second point in our reflection is a warning from Jesus to His followers to avoid things that may lead us to sin. Why is it that sometimes it is so tempting to do things that we know are wrong and sinful? We fall into sin because we give way to these temptations. So Jesus warns us to be always on guard about things that lead us to make these bad choices, and to eliminate them from our lives.

My late professor in Moral Theology gave us a helpful tip to avoid getting tempted: at the very first sign of temptation, it is always prudent to just run away than allow your moral strength to be tested. For no one can really claim to be strong enough against the cunning of the evil one.

Thus, Jesus also warns us about the reality of hell for those who do not want to heed His teaching. He said to His disciples, "It is better for you to enter into life crippled than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna (meaning hell in the New Testament)." (Mk 9:45) In other words, the fear of hell should urge us to lead a good life, because absolutely nothing here on earth is worth even a moment in hell.

We also celebrate this Sunday the 23rd National Seafarers Day. Let us pray that the Lord bless and protect our Filipino seafarers and their families, and that they also become effective ambassadors for our country and faithful messengers of Christ by their Christian living.

A blessed Sunday to us all. And thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!