PROPER 21 (26) – Year B
19th Sunday after Pentecost — September 29, 2024
Gospel Lectionary Text
Mark 9:38-50
9:38 John said to him, "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he was not following us."
9:39 But Jesus said, "Do not stop him, for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me.
9:40 Whoever is not against us is for us.
9:41 For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.
9:42 "If any of you causeone of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.
9:43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.
9:45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell.
9:47 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell,
9:48 where their worm never dies and the fire is never quenched.
9:49 "For everyone will be salted with fire.
9:50 Salt is good, but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."
Context
Welcome to the 19th Sunday after Pentecost. In this week’s Gospel, the disciples encounter “someone” casting out demons in the name of Jesus. Their instinct? Shut it down. He’s not part of their inner circle. But he’s no threat to Jesus or the movement of mercy on offer.
The real threat is the hidden envy brewing in the disciples’ hearts. Envy inflames rivalries, which creates what Jesus calls stumbling blocks (skandalizō), from which we get the word scandal.
Scandals have dual energies. We are both fascinated and repelled by them. Like certain chemical compounds, this dual energy is combustible and its explosive power is multiplied by the hidden accelerant of envy. A world gone mad with envy is hell bent on its own destruction, which is why Jesus speaks so dramatically. And he’s not wrong. It really would be better if we poked out one of our envious eyes, or cut off one of our envious hands or feet than to spark a wildfire that will consume us all.
Question
In what ways might we be unwittingly fueling the fires of envy and rivalry within our own communities?
Reflections
Praying Eucharistically - Weekly Homily by James Alison:
Understanding the Bible anew through the Mimetic Theory of René Girard.
Poetry
Excerpt on Scandal from I See Satan Fall Like Lightening
by Rene Girard
Scandals are responsible for the false infinity of mimetic rivalry. They secrete increasing quantities of envy, jealousy, resentment, hatred — all the poisons most harmful not only for the initial antagonists but also for all those who become fascinated by their rivalistic desires. At the height of scandal each reprisal calls forth a new one more violent than its predecessor. If nothing stops it, the spiral has to lead to a series of acts of vengeance in a perfect fusion of violence and contagion.
“Woe to the one by whom scandal comes!” Jesus reserves his most solemn warning for the adults who seduce children into the infernal prison of scandal.
Excerpt
by Flannery O'Conner
“I use the grotesque the way I do because people are deaf and dumb and need help to see and hear.”
Prayer
Coming soon.