June 10 – Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B : Jesus our Brother

 

First Reading Genesis 3:9–15
Adam and Eve eat the fruit of the forbidden tree.

Responsorial Psalm Psalm 130:1–2,3–4,5–6,7–8 (7bc)
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.

Second Reading  2 Corinthians 4:13—5:1
We believe and so we speak.

Gospel Reading  Mark 3:20–35

 

Whoever does the will of God is brother and sister and mother to me.

In the section of the Gospel just before these verses, Jesus calls his Twelve Apostles. Now he performs his first exorcism. It is told within the context of conflict with his family.

A crowd so large has gathered that Jesus and his disciples are not even able to eat their bread. His family comes to take him away because they think he is beside himself. And the scribes think he is possessed by the devil. Jesus points out to them the absurdity of their thinking that he uses the devil to cast out demons. In fact, it is Jesus who ties up the strong man, Beelzebub, and overcomes him.

He concludes with a brief saying about the forgiveness of sins. All sin can be forgiven except for blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. It’s not known exactly what he means by this. It could be that the only sin that can’t be forgiven is the one that cuts you off from the source of forgiveness, the Holy Spirit.