« If you are enslaved to lust and want to be free, you must take a drastic measure. »

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊  

James 5:1-6

 So, now for what concerns the rich!

Cry and weep for the misfortunes that are coming upon you.   Your riches are rotting and your clothes eaten up by the moths.   Your silver and gold have rusted and their rust grows into a witness against you. It will consume your flesh like fire, for having piled up rich­es in these the last days.

 You deceived the workers who harvested your fields but now their wages cry out to the heavens. The reapers’ complaints have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.  You lived in luxury and pleasure in this world thus fattening yourselves for the day of slaughter.   You have easily condemned and killed the innocent since they offered no resistance.

 

Ps 49:14-15ab, 15cd-16, 17-18, 19-20

Blessed are the poor in spirit; the kingdom of heaven is theirs!

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊ 

Mark 9:41-50

If anyone gives you a drink of water because you belong to Christ and bear his name, truly, I say to you, he will not go without reward.  If anyone should cause one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble and sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a great millstone around his neck.

 If your hand makes you fall into sin, cut it off! It is better for you to enter life without a hand than with two hands to go to hell, to the fire that never goes out.   And if your foot makes you fall into sin, cut it off!

It is better for you to enter life without a foot than with both feet to be thrown into hell.   And if your eye makes you fall into sin, tear it out! It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than, keeping both eyes, to be thrown into hell   where the worms that eat them never die, and the fire never goes out.   The fire itself will preserve them. 

 Salt is a good thing; but if it loses its salt­iness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.”

    

Gospel Reflection：

Truth over Diplomacy

A 1937 definition (anonymous) of diplomacy goes thus: The art of telling you to go to hell in such a way that you look forward to going there.” Well, no one can accuse Jesus or apostle James of being too diplomatic.

Today’s passages would suffice to prove that they liked to call a spade a spade. There are no sweeteners, no oiling the hand; just direct, in-your-face statements of truth.

They were not meant to antagonize anyone, but only to ensure that the truth is boldly told. Of course, it did cost them their lives, because the world does not really like to hear the truth. In the contemporary world where even some Christian churches.

Taking after the corporate world, are over-conscious of their public relations image, we will do well to remind ourselves that our ultimate vocation is to witness to the truth even at the cost of our lives, and not necessarily to ensure institutional survival.