IN TODAY'S GOSPEL we see two very different reactions to Jesus - one negative and the other positive.

The Gospel opens by telling us that Jesus had gone home with his disciples. What does 'home' mean here? After all, we know that Jesus, after leaving Nazareth, did not have a home, he did not have a place to lay his head. Nevertheless, he was in a house, a house, perhaps belonging to one of his disciples, in which he felt perfectly at home.

Move On










Many homes

He would tell his disciples later that all who left home to follow him would have an abundance of homes in this life, the home of every Christian would be a place of welcome to other Christians and, in fact, to all strangers genuinely in need of shelter. Again, any place where Jesus and his disciples are gathered together is home. And we will see that illustrated further on in the story.

As soon as people knew that Jesus had arrived they piled into the house so that Jesus and his disciples could not even eat.

Move On










"He's mad!"

When Jesus' family heard what was going on, they went to take him out of there, convinced he was quite out of his mind. Here we have the first negative element in the story. His own family and relatives reject what he is and what he is saying and doing. They can only see that he is making a laughing stock of the family with all this "guru" business. He has apparently been driving out evil spirits and they have been heard shrieking and making their victims behave in bizarre ways. Worse still, he is behaving in very unorthodox ways and his remarks are upsetting the religious leadership and that could mean trouble for them also.

Indeed the religious leadership was after him. They had come up to Galilee all the way from Jerusalem and were accusing Jesus of being under the power of the devil. "Beelzebul is in him; it is through the prince of devils that he casts out devils."

Move On










Self-contradictory charges

Jesus points out the obvious contradictions in their accusations. What sense does it make for Satan to be casting out his minions who were doing his work for him? A kingdom divided by civil war is going to fall. "If Satan has rebelled against himself [what a strange idea?] and is divided, he cannot stand either -- it is the end of him."

Jesus goes further. No one, he says, can go into a strong man's house to burgle it unless he has first tied up the strong man. Jesus, of course, is the strong man who has broken into Satan's house, tied him up, and released those who were being held there. This is the only reasonable explanation for what Jesus has been doing. That of the scribes makes no sense whatever. It is the interpretation of poisoned minds.

Move On










The only unforgivable sin

And Jesus goes on to say something which sometimes puzzles people. "Everyone's sins will be forgiven, and all their blasphemies; but let anyone blaspheme against the Holy Spirit and he will never have forgiveness: such a person is guilty of an eternal sin." And Mark makes it clear in what context these words were said, "It was because they were saying, 'An unclean spirit is in him'."

How are we to explain these strange words of Jesus? Does it mean that all sins can be forgiven except one? Why just one exception? And why the sin against the Holy Spirit? What is so sensitive about a sin against the Holy Spirit? What about a sin against the Father or the Son? Aren't things like murder and rape much worse sins?

Move On










Sin against the Spirit

To answer the question we have to ask another: What is a sin against the Holy Spirit? It is through the Holy Spirit that God teaches us and guides us into a right way of living, which is to become more and more united with him. To sin against the Holy Spirit is to turn our backs on God by rejecting that teaching and guidance. This is precisely what is happening with the members of Jesus' family and the scribes in today's gospel.

Instead of seeing the love, power and the action of God so clearly present in Jesus they blindly assert that he is mad and is possessed by an evil spirit. If they opened themselves to the guidance of the Spirit they would have been able to see what indeed many others were able to see, as when the crowds exclaimed on one occasion about Jesus: "God has visited his people!"

Whenever we turn our backs and refuse to open ourselves to the gentle hand of God leading us towards him, by whatever means that may happen (and the Spirit can use all kinds of instruments, both people, things and happenings) we are guilty of sinning against the Holy Spirit.

Move On










Closed hearts

Why cannot there be forgiveness for such a sin? For the simple reason that we have closed our hearts and put ourselves beyond God's reach. God never forces his way into our hearts. "I stand at the door and knock," says the Lord in the Book of Revelation. But he will never force down the door. I have to open from the inside.

And, if God is prevented from reaching us, how can he extend his forgiveness to us? That is why it can be an "eternal sin"; it will remain that way as long as we are closed to his entering. Other sins, however serious, can be forgiven, including murder and rape and genocide, if we repent and seek reconciliation. But as long as we refuse to repent, to change, to convert and change back we are into the sin against the Holy Spirit and have effectively tied God's hands.

His forgiveness is never just a unilateral, judicial act; it always requires the turning back of the prodigal so that the Father can embrace us once more.

Move On










Outsiders and insiders

Now we come to the final part of our Gospel.

We were told earlier that Jesus' family wanted to take him in charge because they thought he was mad and an embarrassment to them. They came to the house where Jesus was with his disciples and a large crowd of people sitting around listening to him.

The key word in this part is 'outside'. "His mother and brothers...standing outside" and "Your mother and brothers and sisters are outside..."

Jesus is told that his mother, brothers and sisters are outside looking for him. Jesus responds by asking: "Who are my mother and brothers?" Then, looking at all those sitting around him and listening to him, namely, those who are 'inside', with him, he says: "Here are my mother and my brothers." And why are they called that? "Anyone who does the will of God, that person is my brother and sister and mother."

Move On










Huge implications

There are huge implications from this apparently simple saying. Jesus is, in fact, inaugurating a new way for people to relate to each other; he is inaugurating a new family. In this family we are brothers and sisters to each other not on the basis of blood, or culture, or race, or nationality, or any other conventional group but solely on our acknowledging him as our Lord and Brother and God as our Father.

These are the people on the inside. Those who still cling to the more conventional divisions (and very divisive they often are) are on the outside. They are symbolised in the First Reading where we have our first parents refusing to listen to the word of God and eating the forbidden fruit. This results in their being expelled from the garden. They are now on the outside and subject to all kinds of distress and suffering, left, by their own choice, on their own. Their nakedness, originally something totally natural, becomes a matter of shame and a symbol of the emptiness of their inner selves after turning away from God.

Move On










Breaking down barriers

Similarly, Jesus' family and the scribes are on the outside because they do not listen to Jesus' call to treat all equally as brothers and sisters. Down the ages many who have tried to break down the barriers between people have been also called mad and sometimes even evil.

The most tragic of all perhaps are those, for instance, in Northern Ireland who, in the name of Jesus and claiming to belong to his family, foster murderous divisions between people who should be one in faith. Here there are surely some who are seriously guilty of the sin against the Holy Spirit.

Move On










What about us?

However, it is not for us to sit in judgement on others but to look at our own selves. Are we on the outside or the inside? To what extent do we listen to, accept and fully assimilate Jesus' call to belong to his family? To what extent do we reach out beyond the divisions of race, colour, religion, class, education... to embrace others as truly our brothers and sisters?.

Like St Paul in today's Second Reading we are indeed aware of our gradual decline as we grow older, and, like him, we can be weighed down by many troubles, but we are filled with hope. As long as we keep listening to Jesus' word coming to us at all time, our "inner self is being renewed day by day". With the faith and confidence of Paul, let us say with him: "We know that when the tent that we live in on earth is folded up, there is a house built by God for us, an everlasting house not made by human hands."

Let that house, where God speaks and we listen, be our only home.





[This gospel is a good example of "inclusion" where one story is contained inside another and both are complementary to each other. The "outer" story is about the contrast between people who are "inside" and those who are "outside", while the "inner" story is about what puts people "outside", their refusal to listen to Jesus.]