10th Sunday Year B - Homily 2

Homily 2 - 2024

In find it somewhat amazing that a group of scribes from Jerusalem had come north to Galilee and were spreading word around that it was “through the prince of devils” that Jesus “was casting out devils”. Jesus himself seemed to have been amazed, too, and did not hesitate to show how ridiculous their accusation was. He went further, in fact, to warn people of the dangers revealed in such conclusions that “an unclean spirit was in him”, when the reality was the exact opposite.

It is worth our while reflecting thoughtfully on what Jesus actually had to say: “Everyone’s sins will be forgiven and all their blasphemies; but let them blaspheme against the Holy Spirit and they will never have forgiveness: they are guilty of an eternal sin”.

The problem with the scribes was that something seemed to have thoroughly blinded them, rendering them unable or unwilling to discern the difference between an unclean spirit and the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit at work in Jesus was God’s Holy Spirit. Mark had already made that obvious in previous incidents of his Gospel. As a preliminary to Jesus’ public ministry, he had drawn attention to how the Spirit had descended on Jesus at his baptism by John. He then noted how the Spirit had immediately driven Jesus out into the wilderness where he had remained for forty days. Only then did Jesus commence his public ministry. He had become a changed man, filled with the Spirit, so much so that “his teaching made a deep impression on people because, unlike the scribes, he taught them with authority”. His activity had a similar effect to his teaching. On one occasion still early in his ministry, after casting out an unclean spirit from a man in one of their synagogues, people remarked, “here is a teaching that is new, and with authority behind it.” Mark left it to his readers to draw their own conclusion about the source of that authority: the Spirit that had descended on him at his baptism.

Without describing what Jesus’ authority was like or how precisely it struck them, Mark approved of the unanimous conclusions of the Galilean villagers in their discernment of the presence of God’s Spirit in Jesus. The scribes from Jerusalem, on the other hand, had already reached their negative assessment with no discernment at all. They had reached their radically mistaken conclusion based either on their unwillingness to make any changes to their familiar lifestyle (asked for in Jesus’ call to continued conversion) or based on the possible threat to their power and influence that they feared could come from Jesus himself.

Their prejudices and insecurity blinded and paralysed them. All they could see in Jesus was negative. They concluded that his message and call arose from an unclean spirit — and were unwilling or unable to see in him the liberating presence of the Spirit of God. And probably, they did not worry about or question their conclusion for a moment. In their minds, the problem lay with Jesus — “the unclean spirit” was in him!!

I find that quite disturbing. It raises a question for us: how to avoid the danger?

Personally, I would love to sharpen my spontaneous sensitivity to the presence of our creating God in everyone I encounter. By now I am running out of time to make it a habit — but I shall keep on trying during what time is left.