10th Sunday in Ordinary Time B
Readings: Genesis 3:9-15 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1 Mark 3:20-35
This Sunday’s readings confront us with the harsh reality of the battle between good and evil, but they also assure us of the Lord God’s merciful victory over the power of Satan and sin. Let us pray with faith the words of the refrain to our responsorial psalm: “With the Lord there is mercy, and fullness of redemption” (Ps 130).
The Genesis reading recounts the Lord God’s searching out Adam and Eve after they have eaten of the forbidden tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden. Rather than abandoning them in their sin, shame and hiding, the Lord God asks Adam, “Where are you?” This is not simply a question concerning his physical location but one about his existential condition now that he has sinned. It is addressed to all of us in our choice of selfishness and sin. Adam’s answer reflects the telltale signs of the alienation brought on by sin: “I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.” Adam and Eve’s attempt to become “like the gods knowing good and evil” (3:5) has only brought them fear and shame and caused them to hid from the Lord God. In an attempt to get Adam to accept responsibility for his sin, the Lord asks, “Who told you that you were naked? You have eaten, then, from the tree of which I have forbidden you to eat!” Rather than taking full responsibility for his deed, Adam feebly blames Eve and even the Lord God for his sin: “The woman whom you put here with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it.” Likewise, when the woman is asked by the Lord God, “Why did you do such a thing?” she blames the serpent: “The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it.”
Our reading concludes with the first of three punishments the Lord pronounces on the serpent, the woman and the man (3:14-19). The serpent as “the most cunning of all the animals the Lord God had made” (3:1) had earlier tempted the woman into sin by suggesting that God had forbidden the eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil out of divine jealousy: “You certainly will not die! No, God knows that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is bad.” Now the Lord God punishes the serpent to “be banned from all the animals” and crawl on his belly and eat dirt “all the days of (his) life.” The conclusion of the serpent’s sentence speaks of the ongoing enmity between his offspring and that of the woman. Christian tradition has called this the Proto-evangelium, the first good news of the victory of Christ over Satan who will undo the sin of Adam by his obedience to the Father’s will. “I will put enmity between you and the woman,/ and between your offspring and hers;/ he will strike at your head,/ while you strike at his heel.”
In the Epistle reading from 2 Corinthians Paul is defending the integrity of his apparently suffering apostolic ministry against those who claim a gospel of glory only. Paul insists that his gospel is rooted in “that spirit of faith” which believes that God will overcome present weakness and suffering through the power of Jesus’ resurrection which is at work in the spread of the gospel. “We believe and so we speak, knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus will raise us up along with Jesus and place both us and you in his presence.” Because of his resurrection faith Paul makes a contrast between the inner working of faith which leads to eternal glory and the visible appearance of present suffering and trial. “We do not lose heart because your inner being is renewed each day, even though our body is being destroyed at the same time. The present burden of our trial is light enough and earns for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. . . . We know that when the earthly tent in which we dwell is destroyed we have a dwelling provided for us by God, a dwelling in the heavens, not made by hands, but to last forever.”
The Gospel presents Jesus in mortal combat against Satan and the power of evil in the face of the disbelief on the part of his family and open hostility from the Jerusalem scribes. In the early chapters of Mark Jesus has made the kingdom of God present and thereby plundered the kingdom of Satan through numerous exorcisms and healings. But his forgiveness of sins, failure to fast and violation of the Sabbath in order to heal have also brought opposition from scribes, Pharisees, and Herodians who are now taking counsel to put him to death (1:21-3:12). Jesus has just summoned his twelve disciples and appointed them to share his mission of preaching and driving out demons (3:13-19), but now as he returns home, his own family thinks “He is out of his mind” (3:20-21) and the scribes from Jerusalem accuse him of being possessed by Beelzebul and working his miracles by the power of the prince of demons (3:22). Jesus defends himself in parables by asking “How can Satan expel Satan?” If indeed Jesus is working miracles by the power of Satan, then Satan has a rebel in his ranks and his kingdom and household are divided and will not long endure. Jesus then asserts that he has “bound” the strong man (Satan) and like a thief is plundering his house. He concludes by solemnly stating that his learned opponents have committed the one unforgiveable sin. The Holy Spirit of God has been active in Jesus exorcisms and healings, and they have blasphemed against it by saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”
The conclusion of today’s Gospel asserts that the proper relation to Jesus is not based on intellectual credentials (the scribes) or family ties but on following Jesus and doing the will of God. In a favorite literary technique Mark now returns to the arrival of his family (3:31-35; cf. 3:20-21). When the crowd informs him that his mother and brothers and sisters are outside asking for him, Jesus says to them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” and as he looks to those in the circle around him, he proclaims, “Here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of God is brother and sister and mother to me.” May we too be included in Jesus’ true family by doing the will of the Father in the battle against evil.
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