10TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Psalter: Week 2 / (Green)
Ps 130:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
With the Lord there is mercy, and fullness of redemption.
1st Reading: Gen 3:9-15
Yahweh God called the man saying to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree I ordered you not to eat?” The man answered, “The woman you put with me gave me fruit from the tree and I ate it.” God said to the woman, “What have you done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me and I ate.”
Yahweh God said to the serpent, “Since you have done that, be cursed among all the cattle and wild beasts! You will crawl on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life. I will make you enemies, you and the woman, your offspring and her offspring. He will crush your head and you will strike his heel.”
2nd Reading: 2 Cor 4:13—5:1
We have received the same spirit of faith referred to in Scripture that says: I believed and so I spoke. We also believe, and so we speak.
We know that, when our earthly dwelling, or, rather, our tent, is destroyed, we may count on a building from God, a heavenly dwelling, not built by human hands, that lasts forever.
Gospel: Mk 3:20-35
They went home. The crowd began to gather again and they couldn’t even have a meal. Knowing what was happening, his relatives came to take charge of him. “He is out of his mind,” they said. Meanwhile, the teachers of the law, who had come from Jerusalem, said, “He is in the power of Beelzebul: the chief of the demons helps him to drive out demons.”
Jesus called them to him, and began teaching them by means of stories, or parables. “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a nation is divided by civil war, that nation cannot stand. If a family divides itself into groups, that family will not survive. In the same way, if Satan has risen against himself and is divided, he will not stand; he is finished. No one can break into the house of a strong man in order to plunder his goods, unless he first ties up the strong man. Then indeed, he can plunder his house.
“Truly, I say to you, every sin will be forgiven humankind, even insults to God, however numerous. But whoever slanders the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. He carries the guilt of his sin forever.”
This was their sin when they said, “He has an unclean spirit in him.”
Then his mother and his brothers came. As they stood outside, they sent someone to call him. The crowd sitting around Jesus told him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you.” He replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?”
And looking around at those who sat there, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of God is brother and sister and mother to me.”
Lectio Divina
Read: Following their sinful act, Adam and Eve discover the dynamics of shame: the sense of being less than. Paul reminds us of our heavenly dwelling prefect in every sense and lasting forever. Jesus declares kinship with all who do the Will of God.
Reflect: At the depth of our being, human beings generally feel a sense of lack, inferiority, and shame. Everyone else seems more than us and disorders of desire drive us to violently appropriate others or expel them. The sin of Adam and Eve was a desperate attempt to become like God. A pity, because that was exactly what God wanted to offer humanity – help us discover His own image and likeness within us and grow into such image by doing God’s Will and becoming brothers and sisters of Christ. It is a gift waiting to be received freely and gratefully; not to be grabbed in violent envy. We are neither less than or more than: we are simply the children of God.
Pray: Pray for the grace to discern and do God’s Will in your everyday context.
Act: Meditate on how it feels to be members of Christ’s family.
Daily Reflection 2018
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Biblical Texts are taken from Christian Community Bible, Catholic Pastoral Edition (57th Edition) The New English Translation for the ROMAN MISSAL
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