Twenty-sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time 2024 Franciscan Gospel Reflection

Franciscan Friar Fr. Paul Gallagher reflects on the Gospel readings for the Twenty-sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time. Do you feel like you are part of God’s inner circle? Would you like to be?

The content is edited by Franciscan Sister of Christian Charity Sister Anne Marie Lom and Joe Thiel. The excerpts from the Sunday readings are prepared by Joe Thiel. To read or download the complete pdf with excerpts for your prayer, please click here Franciscan Gospel Reflection September 29 2024. Excerpts are from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America, second typical edition © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC. Used with permission. All rights reserved. No portion of this text may be reproduced by any means without permission in writing from the copyright owner. Photo: Mia Gaitanidis, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons; Greg Riegler from Pensacola, FL, USA, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48

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.” Jesus replied, “Do not prevent him. 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. Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward.

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life crippled than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna, where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.'”

Background:

This gospel text follows the Gospel from last Sunday, where Jesus confronted the disciples who had been arguing about which of them was the most important among them. In response, Jesus told them that those who desire to be first must be servants of all.

The gospel begins with the apostle John raising questions about discipleship. In their culture, it was important for the disciples to have a sense of belonging and a strong sense of connection with Jesus, their leader. For anyone not of their group to be using the name of Jesus to expel evil spirits would threaten their sense of belonging. This would be added to the uncertainty raised a few verses prior to this, when they were asked to expel a demon from a boy but were unable to do so (Mark 9:14-19).  Jesus’ response to his disciples is counter to the values of their culture. He simply lets the disciples know that their need to have an insider or exclusive relationship with him is not a value he shares. It is more important that the work of God be done, rather than who is doing it. Jesus stresses the point by saying God will recognize anyone who so much as gives another a glass of water. It would be helpful to hear this statement in its context, mindful that giving another a glass of water in Jesus’ day was more difficult and more significant than most westerners would experience.

The second part of this gospel also addresses the sense that the disciples have exclusive access to Jesus or God. Jesus instructs them that God cares for even the little ones–not just children, but all those who seem unimportant. While these little ones, like children of the day, may appear to be insignificant and even expendable to most people, in the eyes of God they are of great importance. They are so important that if anyone would be a source of scandal to any of them, it would be better that a millstone be placed about their neck and they be thrown into the sea to drown. This was a particularly humiliating form of execution because it typically was used by the Romans.

In the remaining verses of this text Jesus describes other forms of restraint for those who find themselves being led into sin. Most who hear this gospel find the idea of cutting off one’s hand or plucking out an eye as extreme. But those who Jesus is addressing would not be shocked. Such punishments were not uncommon, but they also carried severe consequences. These punishment guidelines, while extreme, were meant to limit the extent that a person might go in retaliation for some crime or injustice done to them. People without limbs or sight did not have access to modern forms of assistance as some do today.  Without fully functioning bodies, people became isolated and lived desperate lives. In the context of this culture, Jesus seems to be trying to make a point about the seriousness of being the cause for another to sin. 

Reflection Questions:

1. Are there people in your life who make you feel special? Who are the people you strive to make feel special? How would your life be different without those people?
2. Do you feel like you are part of God’s inner circle? Would you like to be?
3. If you were commissioning an artist to paint this gospel scene, what would you ask the artist to include: the expressions of John’s face, Jesus’s face, their posture, the surroundings, other people overhearing the conversation, or those paying no attention at all? Where would you put yourself in the painting?
4. How do you respond within yourself as you hear Jesus speak about the one who causes one of the little ones to sin?
5. Jesus seems to be asking his followers to take seriously those things that cause them to sin. Can you take some time to talk with God about why God takes those things so seriously?
6. Can you also take some time to talk with God about your relationship to “little ones?”