Dear Parishioner,

     In this Sunday’s Gospel it is evident that Jesus has become a sensation. He casts out devils and people are flocking to him This and other miracles, together with his preaching, has led his relatives to set out and take charge of him. They believe he is out of his mind. We hear that the scribes who had come down form Jerusalem were saying “Beelzebub is in him” and “It is through the prince of devils that he casts devils out”. Jesus’s admirers are impressed and heartened by the miracles he is working, particularly the casting out of devils to be free of these devils means being totally liberated! So we see that one group of people – “those in the know” – the scribes, who are well-educated and learned, and those who “know” Jesus because they are family – want to stop what is new and, perhaps, dangerous, whereas the poor and ignorant receive desperately needed life-changing help.

    The question to ask about Jesus’s miracles therefore is do they do good or bad? We know the answer because we are children of the Good News, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. We might be tempted think that sceptics during Jesus’s ministry, including the scribes, had an excuse because it looked as though Jesus was out of line with the Jewish tradition. In fact, the Jewish law emphases justice and mercy. The scribes did not see Jesus’s miracles as a radical way of exercising mercy. We too in fact can fall in to this trap if we are asked to perform a work of mercy at an inconvenient time or we prioritise our own peace at the expense of an urgent cry for help or we give in to pressure not to help.

    As we approach the General Election, and many of us may have watched the televised debates between Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer, we might find help in this Gospel. The Church exhorts to consider the common good. In doing this we have to bear in mind that something is not good or bad just because it is old or new. The question is: what real benefit is a proposed course of action likely to bring? The complexities of Government and public life are such that it is not at all easy for us to tell. We also need to pray abut the election and that we may play our part as in all things to the glory of God and good of our neighbor.

Yours in Christ, 

Fr Timothy