23 February 2022 – Wednesday of Week 7

23 February 2022 – Wednesday of Week 7

Memorial: St Polycarp

1st Reading: James 4:13-17

We do not know what kind of life will be ours tomorrow

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.” Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin.

Responsorial: Psalm 49

R./: Happy are the poor in spirit; the Kingdom of heaven is theirs

Hear this, all you peoples;
hearken, all who dwell in the world,
Of lowly birth or high degree,
rich and poor alike. (R./)

Why should I fear in evil days
when my wicked ensnarers ring me round?
They trust in their wealth;
the abundance of their riches is their boast. (R./)

Yet in no way can a man redeem himself,
or pay his own ransom to God;
Too high is the price to redeem one’s life;
he would never have enough
to remain alive always and not see destruction. (R./)

For he can see that wise men die,
and likewise the senseless and the stupid pass away,
leaving to others their wealth. (R./)

Gospel: Mark 9:38-40

Jesus allows others to cast out devils in his name

John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us.”

Dearly bought wisdom

Wisdom is a quality that is dearly won, and is something to work on all our lives. We sometimes need to meet with setbacks to learn wisdom.

Jesus reprimanded his disciples for their envy and fear. Feeling slighted by some villager who went about using the name of Jesus to bless sick people, they complained indignantly, “We tried to stop him, because he is not of our company!” But his reply came from compassionate insight and solid, common sense . “No one can perform a miracle in my name and at the same time speak ill of me. Anyone who is not against us is with us.”

The attitude, totally free of envy and fear, totally relaxed and unselfish, is not easily learned, but is the fruit of wise reflection. It shows a person at peace, secure in their own identity and therefore secure in letting others be themselves.

A link to this gospel from St James is his warning against arrogance, pretension and selfish hoarding of resources. Such a life focus can easily dissolve, for , “You have no idea what kind of life will be yours tomorrow.” Truly wise persons don’t depend to much on what they own, or rigidly defend their status. If we keep on seeking wisdom, we become relaxed, generous and trustful, and walk life’s path with Jesus.

Learning a new vision

Mark often shows a clash of views between Jesus and his friends. Some of the disciples had a them-and-us view of other people. Only those of the inner circle could be trusted to do the Lord’s work. Jesus had a more nuanced view than this. He could see that even people who had not formally joined him could be doing God’s life-giving work. Indeed, he makes the generous statement, ‘Anyone who is not against us is for us.’ That’s a most hopeful guideline for us, in the times in which we live.

Many of our friends and neighbours do not explicitly share our faith, or at least practise it in the traditional way; yet they are not against the Gospel either. We should work to build bridges with whoever in any way shows a desire to enhance the life of others, who bring some relief where it is needed. We can be partners in mission with those who are not even professed Christians. In these times we need the outlook of Jesus himself rather than the narrower vision of his disciples.