Whoever is Not Against Us is For Us
Gospel Reflection for Wednesday February 26, 2025
Today’s gospel, though very short, has a very important message:
“There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me. For whoever is not against us is for us." Mark 9:39-40
This passage should be read as an affirmation that those who are not actively against Christ can act in accord with Him, though perhaps through some ignorance. This passage serves as a call to reach out to those who are not in full communion with the Church and yet share the common Baptismal seal. Valid baptism welcomes new Christians into the universal Church and claims them for Christ. The majority of Protestant denominations will administer a valid Baptism and so there is a common, yet incomplete, bond.
We should notice the context of the passage though. Christ does not wish for those who are separated from the visible confines of the Catholic Church to be left there. But since they are not against us, we should go to them and invite them to full communion. This is what Christ prays for at the Last Supper:
“The glory which you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” John 17:22-23
Christ desires that His church be One. This unity is indicative of the true Church since it reflects the Oneness of the Blessed Trinity. The potential for full unity is there since ‘whoever is not against us is for us.’
Today, let us pray for unity within the Christian community on earth. In addition, let us keep our Holy Father, who is the principle of unity within the Church, in our prayers as he suffers through his current cross.