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Gospel, Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-4838 
John said to him, 'Master, we saw someone who is not one of us driving out devils in your name, and because he was not one of us we tried to stop him.'

39 But Jesus said, 'You must not stop him; no one who works a miracle in my name could soon afterwards speak evil of me.

40 Anyone who is not against us is for us.

41 'If anyone gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, then in truth I tell you, hewill most certainly not lose his reward.

42 'But anyone who is the downfall of one of these little ones who have faith, would be better thrown into the sea with a great millstone hung round his neck.

43 And if your hand should be your downfall, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life crippled, than to have two hands and go to hell, into the fire that can never be put out.

45 And if your foot should be your downfall, cut it off; it is better for you enter into life lame, than to have two feet and be thrown into hell.

47 And if your eye should be your downfall, tear it out; it is better for you to enter into the kingdom ofGod with one eye, than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell

48 where their worm will never die nor their fire be put out.

REFLECTION:
This Sunday, Jesus teaches us about tolerance. Tolerance (or 'pagpaparaya' in Filipino) is often associated with being permissive. Being tolerant or permissive is suspect; it has to be checked if it could lead to abuse of freedom or to violent consequences. A mother, who is not able to correct her children’s bad behaviour early in life, is being tolerant in a wrong way. Tolerance could also be right in other cases. In fact, it would be a big mistake to view tolerance in its negative value only.

In the gospel, Jesus asks his disciples to be tolerant. If tolerance were not good, why would Jesus require such from his disciples? As narrated, it started when after the disciples ‘saw someone driving out demons’ in the name of Jesus, they prevented him from performing exorcism because he did not belong to the followers of Jesus.

We could only surmise what were in the minds of the disciples. Were they jealous because the man could also cast demons though he was not one of them? Were they angry because they have assumed that the power to exorcise demons was a privilege given only to the followers of Jesus and not to any other person? The disciples were confused. Suddenly, what they have thought to be their exclusive right was no longer their own alone.

Jesus had his reasons: ‘Do not prevent him,’ he said, ‘there is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me. For whoever is not against us is for us.’ With these words, Jesus has taught his disciples about tolerance more as an exercise of Christian humility and charity.

This teaching is so relevant for us today. We should not think that salvation is reserved only for us who were baptized and who believe in Christ. Membership to his Church, faith, and the sacraments are still considered the ordinary ways to receive salvation, but this does not exclude the possibility that God could offer other ways of bringing people to encounter the ‘paschal mystery of Christ’ in their lives. Like the outsider who performed exorcism in the name of Jesus, we have to understand that it is really Jesus who is the true source of salvation; the rest is just his medium.

Jesus calls us to religious tolerance, as long as it is not against him and his teachings. It is prudence perhaps that sometimes makes us doubt whether something or someone should be tolerated or not. However, Jesus challenges us towards religious tolerance so that individually we also learn to discern about the faith we have received: what is truly to follow Christ, how is it really to belong to him, what does it really mean to be a Catholic? In the answers our salvation is found.



Contributor:
FMAGS, OSA 
 



 
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Reading 1, Wisdom 2:17-2017 
Let us see if what he says is true, and test him to see what sort of end he will have.

18 For if the upright man is God's son, God will help him and rescue him from the clutches of his enemies.

19 Let us test him with cruelty and with torture, and thus explore this gentleness of his and put his patience to the test.

20 Let us condemn him to a shameful death since God will rescue him -- or so he claims.'

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 54:3-4, 5, 6-83 
Arrogant men are attacking me, bullies hounding me to death, no room in their thoughts for God.Pause

4 But now God is coming to my help, the Lord, among those who sustain me.

5 May their wickedness recoil on those who lie in wait for me. Yahweh, in your constancy destroy them.

6 How gladly will I offer you sacrifice, and praise your name, for it is good,

7 for it has rescued me from all my troubles, and my eye has feasted on my enemies.

Reading 2, James 3:16--4:316 
Wherever there are jealousy and ambition, there are also disharmony and wickedness of every kind;

17 whereas the wisdom that comes down from above is essentially something pure; it is also peaceable, kindly and considerate; it is full of mercy and shows itself by doing good; nor is there any trace of partiality or hypocrisy in it.

18 The peace sown by peacemakers brings a harvest of justice.

1 Where do these wars and battles between yourselves first start? Is it not precisely in the desires fighting inside your own selves?

2 You want something and you lack it; so you kill. You have an ambition that you cannot satisfy; so you fight to get your way by force. It is because you do not pray that you do not receive;

3 when you do pray and do not receive, it is because you prayed wrongly, wanting to indulge your passions.

Gospel, Mark 9:30-3730 
After leaving that place they made their way through Galilee; and he did not want anyone to know,

31 because he was instructing his disciples; he was telling them, 'The Son of man will be delivered into the power of men; they will put him to death; and three days after he has been put to death he will rise again.'

32 But they did not understand what he said and were afraid to ask him.

33 They came to Capernaum, and when he got into the house he asked them, 'What were you arguing about on the road?'

34 They said nothing, because on the road they had been arguing which of them was the greatest.

35 So he sat down, called the Twelve to him and said, 'If anyone wants to be first, he must make himself last of all and servant of all.'

36 He then took a little child whom he set among them and embraced, and he said to them,

37 'Anyone who welcomes a little child such as this in my name, welcomes me; and anyone who welcomes me, welcomes not me but the one who sent me.'


REFLECTION:

“If you should ask me what are the ways of God, I would tell you that the first is humility, the second is humility, and the third is humility. Not that there are no other precepts to give, but if humility does not precede all that we do, our efforts our meaningless.” So said by our great father Saint Augustine. True enough, humility is the only way towards God for it is through this way that God can be seen in the simplicity of faith’s vision.

The readings this Sunday are sign posts towards this realization. They point out to us the path of humility as a sure way to God: the image of the child in the gospel speaks of humility, of littleness and of simplicity. But, we ask, why did God chose the way of humility in order to show us the path toward him? With this question, let us try to discern God’s Word in the readings.

The suffering of a just man in the first reading reflects first the way of the suffering for the sake of God. Like the first reading last Sunday, today, the Book of Wisdom pictures the humbling experience of man who pursues for God: trapped, slandered and even tested his patience to drop his faith. But he did not give up; he persevered on this humbling experience just for the sake of keeping his eye to God. The reading is a reminder that to pursue God, we must pass through the alleys of humility.

James on the one hand shows us how jealousy and ambition ruins peace and harmony. The only attitude that would yield humanity with peace is the way of the above: the pursuit of wisdom. But James added. Wisdom is not an overpass for all difficulties. It is rather a way of the lowly. Wise persons know how to understand, they are full of compassion and good works and – the most important – they know how to listen. In the second reading, James therefore establishes that the way of wisdom is the way of down-to-earth and humble people for they know how to integrate themselves to the lowly. It is not like those who desire greatness through wrong motives – they end up into squabbles and fighting.

The Gospel from Mark culminates the message of humility. When the Lord himself predicts his passion to his disciples, he shows that his glorification with the Father is preceded by the way of humility: the way of the cross. But his disciples are in complete opposite to him. They thought that Jesus wins a flawless victory. His disciples are the reverse of what James had told us. The disciples did not understand simply because Jesus’ wisdom has not met their own standard. They thought Jesus as immensely powerful combatant. But Jesus shows them the humility of the messiah. The messiah who will win the salvation is like a child: humble, docile, open and persistent. In the image of the child Jesus tells his disciples to transpose their tenor of expectation into a lower key; this key is the key of humility. True greatness in God is reached on the level of real lowering of oneself. In this level, a person who pursues God’s level can shed his personal pride: his wrong motives, ill desires, and bad conducts. The act of humility passing through suffering, as Saint Paul said suffering produces endurance, this endurance produces character, and on the one hand this character produces hope that will not disappoint us because God’s love is poured in us (see Rom. 5:3). Humility therefore is a purified intention of the soul that reaches to the realm of God who himself touches our person in the very act of humility of his self-emptying.

Augustine is right to say that humility are steps to God. It is so because humility is the act of emptying ourselves of our own uncoordinated wishes. Cleansing ourselves from the purifying sufferings which is passed through the way of humility, man is able now to participate to the greatness of God. Jesus has shown us his example. May we understand now the message of his passion and death while we are walking through the road of Christian living. Humility is the message of his sufferings and that is why we must embrace humility so that our own effort of imitating our Lord will not be an inert meaninglessness. 

Contributor:

Fray Ric Anthony Reyes, OSA


 
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Honestly, I find the feast of the Exultation of the Cross liturgically misplaced. At first, when we recall of a cross, what comes into our mind is Good Friday, or at least the Holy Week and the Lenten Season. It is in these liturgical days when the theme and the figure of the cross find its suitable place. But why September 14 is the feast of the Triumph of the Cross? What in the world does this mean? Does it really a misplaced feast or it is just appropriate to celebrate a tightly-tied mystery of our faith to the Paschal Triduum in some unanticipated ordinary season of the Liturgical life of the Church?

The liturgical notes of September 14 in the Ordo of Liturgical Celebrations tell us that the celebration must be an appropriate time because of a “double event” in the Church history. In brevity, it is historically imbued. First, on that day, Constantine, the Roman emperor who allowed Christians to practice publicly their faith (remember the “Licet esse Christianos” thing), erected the Church ofAnastasis. This is the Church that houses the empty grave of Jesus Christ. Anastasis simply means “resurrection” or an act of “drawing from one stance or state” if my memory in Greek serves me best. So this is the Church of the Resurrection. At the same time, it he constructed the Basilica called theMartyrium and the spot of Calvarium. This complex of buildings joined as one big Church in Jerusalem house the spots of the greatest events of the history of salvation. The Church was dedicated in 335. Another important event happened which is commemorated on this day. It was the miraculous discovery of the Lord’s Cross by the mother of the Emperor above, the Empress Saint Helena in 320. She found the cross after identifying it when a sick person got healed when he touched the true relic.

But these historical events must have an impact to us as we continue to live the ordinariness of Christian life in this ordinary season. In reality, even the feast exists on this day or not, let us not forget that the mystery of the cross is not an out-dated or a mere seasonal theme or icon in Christian life. The cross must always be a part of our life for it was willed by Jesus to be part of his life here on earth; it is his passage way towards new life. The cross is essentially united to the mystery of the resurrection of Christ; whenever we speak of resurrection, we must speak and cannot but speak of the cross. For without it, the resurrection of Christ is impossibl; the lifting from our own old state to another had not happened. Through the cross, the drama of salvation had begun and the fruits of Jesus’ death and resurrection reach us all time, anywhere and to everyone. Thus, Christian life is imbued by the shadow of the cross as much as it is enlightened by the glory of resurrection. It is inseparable to it; Christ’s cross and resurrection is one. God’s will of salvation is universal and it is appropriate that the cross is always a fresh reminder of salvation and a signification of our unity under the one faith gifted by the grace of Jesus’ resurrection.

So, as we celebrate today the glory of the cross through the memory of the distant histories, let us not forget to approach the shade of this living tree with renewed commitment to incorporate the mystery of redemption in our lives. Let us renew under it our commitment to live always will of God. Christian life is best lived if it is docile to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and by carrying our own crosses along the path of Christ. May we consider always finding our origin under the cross of Christ.

Lastly let us take heed of what Saint Paul had written: “…but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1Co 1:23-24 NAB). Christ crucified is wisdom of God. This is the wisdom of love, the wisdom of unconditional love for his beloved people. It is also a power of God, the power of God to draw us into him to lift up with him on the cross. God has initiated the way of the cross; come let us follow it with authentic love and devotion.