＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊   

James 4:1-17

 What causes these fights and quarrels among you?

Is it not your cravings that make war within your own selves? When you long for something you cannot have, you kill for it and when you do not get what you desire, you squab­ble and fight. The fact is, you do not have what you want because you do not pray for it. 

You pray for something and you do not get it because you pray with the wrong motive of indulging your pleasures. You adulterers! Don’t you know that making friends with the world makes you enemies of God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be the world’s friend becomes God’s enemy.

 Can you not see the point of the saying in Scripture: “The longing of the spirit he sent to dwell in us is a jealous longing?” But God has something better to give, and Scripture also says, God opposes the proud but he gives his favor to the humble. 

Give in, then, to God; resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw close to God and he will come close to you. Clean your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you doubters. Rec­ognize your distress, be miserable and weep. Turn your laughter into tears and your joy into sadness. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will raise you up.

 Brothers and sisters, do not criticize one another. Anyone who speaks against or condemns another, speaks against the Law and condemns the Law. If, however, you condemn the Law, you are no longer an observer of the Law but a judge of it. There is only one lawgiver and one judge: he who has the power to save or condemn. So you, who are you to judge your neighbor?

 Listen now, you who speak like this, “Today or tomorrow we will go off to this city and spend a year there; we will do business and make money.” You have no idea what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? No more than a mist which appears for a moment and then disappears. 

Instead of this, you should say, “God willing, we will live and do this or that.” But no! You boast of your plans: this brazen pride is wicked. Anyone who knows what is good and does not do it, sins.

 

Ps 49:2-3, 6-7, 8-10, 11

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

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

Mark 9:38-40

 John said to him, “Master, we saw someone who drove out demons by calling upon your name, and we tried to forbid him because he does not belong to our group.”   Jesus answered, “Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in my name can soon after speak evil of me.   For whoever is not against us is for us.

 

Gospel Reflection：

Apostolic Jealousy

Given that John spoke in first person plural (“we”), he was evidently speaking on behalf of all twelve disciples who were upset that an “outsider”was casting out devils in Jesus’ name.

we can understand their frustration : It is just a few passages before that we read about their own inability to cast out demons despite being the accredited disciples of Jesus (cf. MK 9:14-18).

Now, they have to face the ignominy of an outsider successfully performing miracles, which makes their own inability to do so all the more humiliating. In reality, the disciples were no different from the priests and Pharisees of their times who felt threatened by the “authority” with which Jesus taught and lived.

Jesus wants them to have a generous heart to appreciate goodness wherever it is present, irrespective of loyalties and memberships. After all, God can raise up descendants for the kingdom even from stones (cf. LK3:8)! Apostolic humility can save us much hearturn.

 

St. Polycarp, bishop & martyr

Born   AD 69 ; Died   AD 155

he died a martyr, bound and burned at the stake,

then stabbed when the fire failed to consume his body