Sunday 9 June 2024

Today is Sunday 9 June, beginning the 10th week of Ordinary Time.

The monks of Pluscarden Abbey sing Ecce quam bonum:

“How good and how pleasant it is when brothers and sisters live together in unity!
It is like precious oil on the head, running down upon the beard, on the beard of Aaron,
running down over the collar of his robes.”

Today’s reading is from the Gospel of Mark.

Mark 3: 20-35

And the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, ‘He has gone out of his mind.’ And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, ‘He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.’ And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, ‘How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.

‘Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin’— for they had said, ‘He has an unclean spirit.’

Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, ‘Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.’ And he replied, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ And looking at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.’

In today’s passage, we hear a warning about the danger of a house divided against itself. Does this warning bring to mind any divisions you are aware of in the world around you that are unnecessary, or destructive?

Yet, as well as a warning, there is also a promise here, that a greater power has entered the world, a greater power than the forces of division and hatred. What signs of this greater power can you recognise in the world around you, and in your own life?

As you listen to the passage from Mark’s gospel again, can you hear Jesus’s promise of something radical occurring, and hear it as relevant to your own circumstances, your own life?

What might you be able to do in the circumstances of your life to overcome division? Can you talk to God now about what you might be called to do to build up and unite, to be an instrument of healing and reconciliation?

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.