On the Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B, Jesus is both surprisingly open and startlingly severe. In The Mass Readings Explained, Dr. Brant Pitre walks through this Sunday's readings and shows how welcoming God's work beyond our circle stands alongside a sober warning about sin and Gehenna.
In the Gospel (Mark 9:38–43, 45, 47–48), Jesus tells the disciples not to stop an outsider casting out demons in his name—“whoever is not against us is for us”—then warns that it is better to enter life maimed than to be thrown into Gehenna, where the worm does not die. Moses wishes that all the Lord's people were prophets (Numbers 11), and James rebukes the rich who defraud their workers (James 5). Dr. Pitre examines what Gehenna meant and what the Catechism teaches about the reality of hell.
GOSPEL, FIRST READING & PSALM TRANSCRIPT (Subscribe or Login for Full Transcript):
So let me just press pause there for a minute before we move on, move any further. It has become popular in recent years — in fact I just saw the other day someone commenting on this — to say the Bible isn't that concerned with the fate of individuals, and it certainly isn’t that concerned with the whole issue of hell. That's something that's a medieval concern that the Catholic Church has made up, but if you look at the Bible itself, the Bible isn't really worried about the individual fate of believers or the eternal punishment of individuals. I have to respond to that claim, and just point out, that is completely false, right. Not only is the eternal fate of individuals a major priority of Scripture as a whole, it's a major priority of Jesus himself, right. Again, no one talks about Gehenna or hell in the New Testament more than Jesus himself. He speaks about hell more times than the rest of the entire New Testament combined, precisely because Christ loves every single human being, because he doesn't want any human being to spend eternity separated from him and separated from God and to experience the pain of that eternal separation, which he's describing here through the images of fire and eternal corruption and eternal, everlasting death. I mean these are serious, serious issues here. So Jesus is drawing on Jewish tradition, using Jewish images to describe this spiritual reality of eternal separation from God and he's essentially telling us in the gospel for today, do whatever it takes to avoid being separated from God forever. Do whatever it takes to avoid ending up in the fires of Gehenna rather than the kingdom of God.
You might have noticed that too, what is the antithesis of Gehenna? What is the opposite of Gehenna? Well Jesus said, it's better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye then with both eyes to be cast into the fires of Gehenna. So these are the two possible fates for every human being, we can either enter into the kingdom of God and be with him forever, or we can enter into the fires of Gehenna and be separated from him forever. Those are the two possibilities that every human being has to stand before, and Jesus is saying if anything impedes your entry into the kingdom of God, if there's any obstacle to you being united with God forever in an eternal union of communion and happiness and joy, then you have to root out that obstacle, you have to cut off that impediment to entering into the kingdom of God...
SECOND READING TRANSCRIPT (SubscribeorLoginfor Full Transcript):
The 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time brings our journey through the Letter of James to an end, with a very powerful reprobation of the wealthy who are abusing the poor in the community to which James is writing. So if you look at James 5:1-6, let’s hear what James's warnings are to the wealthy in his audience...
The Readings for the Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
First Reading: Numbers 11:25–29
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 19:8, 10, 12–13, 14
Second Reading: James 5:1–6
Gospel: Mark 9:38–43, 45, 47–48
Key passages & sources examined: the Spirit resting on Eldad and Medad (Numbers 11:25–29); “whoever is not against us is for us” (Mark 9:40); the gravity of scandal and the millstone; Gehenna as the Valley of Hinnom (cf. Jeremiah 7:31; Isaiah 66:24); CCC 1034–35 on the reality of hell.
What are the Mass readings for the Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B? Numbers 11:25–29; Psalm 19; James 5:1–6; and the Gospel, Mark 9:38–43, 45, 47–48.
What does “whoever is not against us is for us” mean? God's work can extend beyond the disciples' own circle, so they should not be territorial about who does good in Jesus' name.
What is Gehenna? An Aramaic name for the Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem, used by Jesus as an image of hell, where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.
What does Jesus say about sin in Mark 9? To root out whatever leads us to sin, using the vivid images of cutting off a hand or foot rather than be lost.
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It is a great service to provide the excellent Mass Reading Explained by Dr. Brant Pitre. I like the feature to download the transcript of the video which is very helpful. However, there are some rooms for improvement as followed:
1. The media player's controls are spotty. Very often, the Closed Caption button is not available. Therefore, I could not enable the subtitle.
2. It will be very helpful if the videos can be searched or sorted by the calendar date, and not just the "Number of Sunday in Ordinary Time".
3. It will be nice if you have an app (for both iOS and MacOS) to launch it, such that I do not have to open a web browser and type in the URL address manually every time. I talked to your support folks on this and I was informed that an app is coming soon. Please make sure it supports both iOS and MacOS.
Thank you very much for your hard work.
Yours in Christ
simon
The only thing I'd prefer is to have a search options within the readings/explanations. For example, like youtube, except now that I purchased the service, I'd like to have Sunday explanations for Purgatory or Predestination. It would really help when I'm debating Calvinists because I could resource back to Pitre.
It is a great service to provide the excellent Mass Reading Explained by Dr. Brant Pitre. I like the feature to download the transcript of the video which is very helpful. However, there are some rooms for improvement as followed:
1. The media player's controls are spotty. Very often, the Closed Caption button is not available. Therefore, I could not enable the subtitle.
2. It will be very helpful if the videos can be searched or sorted by the calendar date, and not just the "Number of Sunday in Ordinary Time".
3. It will be nice if you have an app (for both iOS and MacOS) to launch it, such that I do not have to open a web browser and type in the URL address manually every time. I talked to your support folks on this and I was informed that an app is coming soon. Please make sure it supports both iOS and MacOS.
Thank you very much for your hard work.
Yours in Christ
simon
The only thing I'd prefer is to have a search options within the readings/explanations. For example, like youtube, except now that I purchased the service, I'd like to have Sunday explanations for Purgatory or Predestination. It would really help when I'm debating Calvinists because I could resource back to Pitre.
