26th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (B) 30th September 2018

The reflections for Sundays and Solemnities is an activity of Society of St Paul, India

A Reflection by:
FR REUBEN TELLIS,
MOUNT CARMEL CHURCH,
BANDRA(W), MUMBAI
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At times when we are angry with someone, we tend to blurt out the order, “Go to Hell”. No doubt we may not really mean what we are saying, but in that statement is bottled up all the anger and frustration with what the person has done or not done, that Hell seems to be the best place we’d like that person to go to. Its another way of telling the person that he is useless and we are disappointed with him.

When we speak of Hell, numerous images come to mind – of blazing fire with creatures having horns and tails – and all these come from Biblical imagery. But actually hell is not something that we have seen, or smelt or felt. In today’s Gospel when Our Lord speaks of Hell he uses a word which we do not hear in the text because it was translated into English. He uses the word “Gehenna”, one of the words for hell. And when Jesus used this word all the Jews and the others in Jerusalem knew exactly what he was talking about. Gehenna was the ever-burning rubbish dump of Jerusalem where the municipal workers emptied all the garbage. So those who heard Jesus had seen the place, smelled it and maybe were even standing in its smoke when he talked. They may have even seen the worms crawling through that part of the place where the fire had not reached.

And what usually goes into the rubbish dump? Food that is not eaten, that is spoilt, wrappings, waste and so on… things that we do not use, the things that have broken down, all the things that do not function anymore. So what our Lord Jesus was trying to say very simply was, “if you are not useful in the building of the Kingdom or human life, or family or the community – you need to be thrown in the rubblish dump of my Kingdom or Gehenna.

Our Lord always spoke of being useful in the world. His manifesto which he announced in the Temple at the beginning of his ministry was all about being useful to God’s people. Through the parable of the talents he praises enterprise and hard work. In Mtt. 21, he curses the fig tree because it isn’t useful. Today’s readings exhort us to be useful. In the first reading Moses appreciates Eldad and Medad because they were making themselves useful by prophesying. In the second reading St. James strongly attacks the futility of collecting earthly treasures at the cost of Kingdom values. In the Gospel Our Lord seems to be appreciating an outsider who is casting out demons in his name. Jesus appears harsh when he speaks of cutting off one’s sinful limbs and eyes. There’s a reason why he does this. He prefers that we use our faculties wisely for the spread of His Kingdom.

The message of today’s liturgy is simple: Be useful even in the little things. Be useful at home, not just in fulfilling responsibilities but also in maintaining peace and harmony. Strive to be of good use rather than a nuisance. Be useful in the parish to which you belong. Share your time and resources for the good of the community. The parish always has numerous opportunities to serve in the Lord’s name. Be useful in your relationships, be useful in your work as you use your God-given talents and serve in different ways. Hell is no place for people who are useful and helpful. Let hell be the last place we’d like to go to. May none of us ever find ourselves in the rubbish dump of life. Amen