10th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year B
Genesis 3:9-15
Psalm 130:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1
Mark 3:20-35
Division in families and polarization between groups and organizations are all too common in our time. From the beginning, it is evident that God wills the unity of all human beings and oneness with creation. The account of the fall of Adam and Eve presents the human condition as the result of a human choice that had consequences beyond the expectations of those who made it. When confronted with their disobedience, the “blame game” begins. Adam blames Eve. Eve blames the serpent. God intervenes by a punishment that is designed to leave open a reversal of the condition.
The beginnings of the rule of sin are present, dividing human beings and separating them from paradise and creation’s intended harmony. To Adam and Eve, God explains the consequences of their choice, but then He creates a distance between human beings and the deceiver that can be filled in. “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.” There is a future that can be directed toward a renewal of the unity willed by God in the beginning.
When Jesus – who is the promised offspring of Eve that will strike at the serpent’s head – expels the demonic from a human situation, bystanders accuse Him of being in league with Satan. Jesus responds that the house of Satan is already beginning to fall. “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; that is the end of him.”
Our response to the call to unity must be the heart of our “work” in the contemporary world. To belong to God and to desire union with God include the acknowledgment of belonging to the people of God and the effort to create a world where individuals and families can thrive in community. Our daily experience makes evident both the reality of original sin and the work of forces beyond us that strive to keep us separate from God and one another. We are polarized and so fail to open to the action of God to restore creation. It is ironic (and demonic!) that even the efforts to promote unity and care for creation become fodder for divisiveness.
Jesus’ response to division is to invite us into His family. “‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ And looking around at those seated in the circle he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.’” We are all children of the same Father, the Author of Creation.
The Responsorial Psalm allows us to make our cry from the depths of this world’s despair. But since we know that God hears the cry of our hearts, we know that “With the Lord there is mercy, and fullness of redemption.”
The way to keep our minds and hearts in unity is to fix our eyes on God’s plan for us. This plan will bring creation back to harmony and lead us to union with God and one another. Paul expresses this to the Corinthians as acknowledgment of the “weight of glory,” that is, the importance of our common destiny. “For this momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of 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 is eternal. For we know that if our earthly dwelling, a tent, should be destroyed, we have a building from God, a dwelling not made with hands, eternal in heaven.” May we find the path to unity and stay in it, watching Satan’s kingdom fall.
