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10th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

June 09, 2024

Fr. John Colacino C.PP.S.

Introit

Kyrie

Gloria

Collect

O God, from whom all good things come,
grant that we, who call on you in our need,
may at your prompting discern what is right,
and by your guidance do it.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Reading (Genesis 3:8-15)

After the woman and the man had eaten from the tree, 8 they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” 11 God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.” 14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”

Responsorial Psalm

Second Reading (2 Cor 4:13-5:1)

Just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture— “I believe, and so I spoke”— we also believe, and so we speak, 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. 15 Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. 16 So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. 17 For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, 18 because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

Alleluia

Gospel (Mark 3:20-35)

Jesus went home and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. 21 When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.” 22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.” 23 And Jesus called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. 27 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. 28 “Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— 30 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. 32 A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.” 33 And Jesus replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34 And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

Catena Nova

We no longer fear the serpent: instead we revere the Holy Spirit. We no longer descend into the earth: instead we reascend into heaven. We are no longer exiles from paradise: instead we live in Abraham's bosom. We no longer hear, “I have made your day like night”: instead, inspired by the Holy Spirit, we sing: “This is the day which the Lord has made: let us keep it with gladness and rejoicing.” Why should we do so? Because the sun is no longer darkened: instead everything is bathed in light…. This is the day on which Adam was set free, and Eve delivered from her affliction. It is the day on which cruel death shuddered, the strength of hard stones was shattered and destroyed, the bars of tombs were broken and set aside. It is the day on which the bodies of people long dead were restored to their former life, and the laws of the underworld, hitherto ever powerful and immutable, were repealed. It is the day on which the heavens were opened at the rising of Christ the Lord, and on which, for the good of the human race, the flourishing and fruitful tree of the resurrection sent forth branches all over the world, as if the world were a garden. It is the day on which the lilies of the newly enlightened sprang up, the streams that sustained sinners ran dry, the strength of the devil drained away, and demonic armies were scattered. (Unknown Greek Author of the 5th Century)

Do not care much who is with you and who is against you; but make it your greatest care that God is with you in everything you do. … Above all things, keep peace within yourself, then you will be able to create peace among others. It is better to be peaceful than learned. (Thomas a Kempis)

The enemy's behavior is like that of a military leader who wishes to conquer and plunder the object of his desires. Just as the commander of an army pitches his camp, studies the strength and defenses of a fortress, and then attacks it on its weakest side, in like manner the enemy of our human nature studies from all sides our theological, cardinal and moral virtues. Wherever he finds us weakest and most in need regarding our eternal salvation he attacks and tries to take us by storm. (St. Ignatius Loyola)\

He needs you

That's all there is to it

Without you he's left hanging

Goes up in dachau's smoke

Is sugar and spice in the baker's hands

gets revalued in the next stock market crash

he's consumed and blown away

used up

without you

Help him

that's what faith is

he can't bring it about

his kingdom

couldn't then couldn't later can't now

not at any rate without you

and that is his irresistible appeal. (Dorothee Soelle)

The essence of the sin described in this passage [from Genesis] is one of mimetic desire. An object (the fruit) became desirable when it became a way of appropriating something proper to someone else (the knowledge of good and evil proper to God). It was only when the object was seen as a way of appropriating what was proper to someone else that it became desirable. Hence the temptation was ‘to become like God’. The temptation was not resisted: the object was appropriated, but more important than the object, desire thereafter functioned in the mode of appropriation, and relationality with the other became formed rivalistically. The other (whether human or divine) could only be perceived as a threat or rival. The immediate result of the appropriation was that good and evil became defined not according to God, but according to appropriation, which means that the self was not accepted as given, but had to be appropriated by forging itself over against some other considered as evil. The beginning of the forging of an identity ‘over against’ is the self-expulsion from the Paradise of receiving the self gratuitously. (James Alison)

Satan is mimetic contagion as its most secret power, the creation of the false gods out of the midst of which Christianity emerged. To speak of the mimetic cycle in terms of Satan enables the Gospels to say or to suggest many things about the religions perceived by Christianity as false, deceptive, and illusory that they could not say in the language of scandal, the reconciling power of unanimous violence. The peoples of the world do not invent their gods. They deify their victims. What prevents researchers from discovering this truth is their refusal to grasp the real violence behind the texts that represent it. The refusal of the real is the number one dogma of our time. It is the prolongation and perpetuation of the original mythic illusion. (René Girard)

Why is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit unforgivable? How should this blasphemy be understood ? St. Thomas Aquinas replies that it is a question of a sin that is "unforgivable by its very nature, insofar as it excludes the elements through which the forgiveness of sin takes place." According to such an exegesis, "blasphemy" does not properly consist in offending against the Holy Spirit in words; it consists rather in the refusal to accept the salvation which God offers to man through the Holy Spirit, working through the power of the Cross. If man rejects the "convincing concerning sin" which comes from the Holy Spirit and which has the power to save, he also rejects the "coming" of the Counselor- that "coming" which was accomplished in the Paschal Mystery, in union with the redemptive power of Christ's Blood: the Blood which "purifies the conscience from dead works." We know that the result of such a purification is the forgiveness of sins. Therefore, whoever rejects the Spirit and the Blood remains in "dead works," in sin. And the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit consists precisely in the radical refusal to accept this forgiveness, of which he is the intimate giver and which presupposes the genuine conversion which he brings about in the conscience. (Pope St. John Paul II)

Homily

People of a certain vintage will remember a TV game show called I've Got a Secret where a panel had to guess something unusual about contestants which they whispered into the ear of the host by asking pointed questions. Jesus would have made a great guest. Judging from Mar's gospel no one would have guessed the truth. In one of the most shocking passages in the New Testament, and with utter candor, he tells us even his relatives would not have guessed who he was. They thought he was out of his mind! And if that weren't bad enough, the scribes from Jerusalem thought he was possessed by an unclean spirit (G). If that isn’t history’s greatest case of mistaken identity, I don’t know what is. The Son of God, sent from heaven, taken for a lunatic and demoniac.

But that's the problem with human judgment, no? It’s often deceived. Take the Garden of Eden. Looks like the problem’s been there from the start. When that serpent came along with the line about eating the forbidden fruit, so humans could “be like gods.” (Gen. 3:5) Adam and Eve bought it, she thinking the snake sincere, he following her lead. And things haven’t been right since. All because the Deceiver was taken for the Truth.

St. Paul knew something about mistaken identity too. Here he was, an outcast to the Jews, a criminal to the Romans, a puzzle to the Christians: his teaching was suspect, his authority questioned, and his personality - well let’s just say, Paul could be less than charming. He was always trying to convince people he was really an apostle, just like the others. Those Corinthians, especially, gave him a hard time.

They were looking for a flashy preacher, a lenient pastor, someone who was “with it.” But Paul was none of those things: he wasn’t an eloquent speaker, he was stern when he had to be, and he was uncompromising with the gospel, no matter the times. The outward appearance of the apostle was pathetic: he was afflicted in every way, persecuted, and struck down (cf. II Cor. 4: 8-9). He was beset by every weakness. There was little you could see about him, to tip you off that he was the chosen vessel, to whom God granted heavenly visions, “things which no one may utter” (II Cor. 11: 4). If you only knew Paul from what you heard and saw, you might never guess his true identity.

Now I suppose we’ve all been misread at one time or another: when our best intentions were thought dishonest; when, despite our best efforts, people thought we were in it for the money, or the power, or the fame. The truth about ourselves, who we really are, went unnoticed because people were only willing to see an ordinary human being, with all our limitations and faults.

Christians are often misread like that, our motives held in contempt: when, because we believe, we speak out on issues that concern us, like social justice, gun violence, the treatment of immigrants, racism and climate change. And often enough, when we speak, we’re accused of “imposing” our beliefs on others, of violating the separation of church and state, mixing religion and politics, and of being un-American for having a conscience that differs from the majority’s. Indeed, we might be thought of as out of our own minds or possessed by an unclean spirit.

Yet despite the discomfort such misunderstandings cause, we are not discouraged (II). If others wish to judge by appearances, they may do so. We remain confident, nevertheless, of God’s acceptance, for in truth, we are children of God though to others we may appear to be something else. For our outer self, which may lead others to mistake us, that outer self is wasting away. But our inner self — our “secret identity” — which only God can judge, is being renewed day by day by the Spirit of God.

It's in that secret part of us where God works to prepare a glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to what is seen but to what is unseen; for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen . . . eternal. And this is cause for our thanksgiving to overflow for the glory of God (II). Who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.

Intercessions (Joe Milner; The Sunday Website)

For the Church: that we may truly be the family of God, taking the Word of God to heart and fulfilling God’s will with our words and deeds.

For the gift of discernment: that we may recognize the work of God within and around us, cooperate with it more fully and never be deceived by the glamour of evil.

For guidance: that God will inspire all who are confronting the powers of evil and help them to bring freedom to those entrapped by addictions, prejudice, human trafficking or violence.

For all who are ill: that the Spirit of God will give comfort to those who are ill, strength to those facing surgery and renew the gift of life within all who desire wholeness.

For all who are grieving: that God will comfort them in their time of loss and fill their hearts with peace.

For all who are traveling: that God will watch over them, protect them from harm and help them to have good visits at their destinations.

For all who have been impacted by inclement weather: that God will help them rebuild their lives, give them strength to face their challenges and touch the hearts of many to assist them

For protection of the air we breathe: that God will help us preserve the quality of air, reducing the pollutants and preserving it for the good of all the human family.

For the gift of peace: that God will guide the leaders of nations as they seek to reduce nuclear weapons, conflicts over territory and terrorism.

God our Redeemer, in Jesus, your promised Messiah, you crushed the power of Satan. Sustain your Church in the struggle against evil, that, hearing your word and doing your will, we may be fashioned into a household of true disciples who share in the victory of the cross. Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen. (ICEL; 1998)

Offertory Antiphon

Offertory Hymn

Adam lay ybounden, Bounden in a bond; Four thousand winter Thought he not too long.

And all was for an apple, An apple that he took, As clerkes finden Written in their book.

Ne had the apple taken been, The apple taken been, Ne had never our lady A-been heavené queen.

Blessed be the time That apple taken was, Therefore we moun singen, Deo gracias!

Communion Antiphon

Closing Hymn

O Spirit of the living God, thou Light and Fire Divine Descend upon Thy Church once more and make it truly Thine Fill it with love and joy and power, with righteousness and peace Till Christ shall dwell in human hearts, and sin and sorrow cease.

Blow, wind of God, with wisdom blow until our minds are free From mists of error, clouds of doubt, which blind our eyes to Thee Burn, winged fire, inspire our lips with flaming love and zeal To preach to all Thy great good news, God's glorious commonweal.

So shall we know the the power of Christ, who came this world to save So shall we rise with Him to life which soars beyond the grave And earth shall win true holiness which makes Thy children whole Till, perfected by Thee, we reach creation's glorious goal.

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