First Reading
Numbers 11:25-29
The Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to Moses. Taking some of the spirit that was on Moses, the Lord bestowed it on the seventy elders; and as the spirit came to rest on them, they prophesied. Now two men, one named Eldad and the other Medad, were not in the gathering but had been left in the camp. They too had been on the list, but had not gone out to the tent; yet the spirit came to rest on them also, and they prophesied in the camp. So, when a young man quickly told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp, ” Joshua, son of Nun, who from his youth had been Moses’ aide, said, “Moses, my lord, stop them.” But Moses answered him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets! Would that the Lord might bestow his spirit on them all!”
Second Reading
James 5:1-6
Come now, you rich, weep and wail over your impending miseries. Your wealth has rotted away, your clothes have become moth-eaten, your gold and silver have corroded, and that corrosion will be a testimony against you; it will devour your flesh like a fire. You have stored up treasure for the last days. Behold, the wages you withheld from the workers who harvested your fields are crying aloud; and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on earth in luxury and pleasure; you have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter. You have condemned; you have murdered the righteous one; he offers you no resistance.
Gospel Cycle Cycle B
Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48
At that time, John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.” Jesus replied, “Do not prevent him. 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. Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward. “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut if off. It is better for you to enter into life crippled than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna, where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.'”
Even about religion, we can become possessive! We should never be shocked that we humans are truly human. All of look for our identity and we sometimes get defensive about that identity. Jesus is inviting us, however, to find an identity in loving and in serving others—and to be able to share that love and service with others.
The first reading, from the Book of Numbers, shows us how Joshua got defensive because others that Moses were prophesying. Moses seems to recognize immediately that there is no need of this kind of jealousy. We are all here seeking God and God can give His gifts wherever He wants. This is always a sort of shocking reality for us, since it leaves God free to send His Spirit on people who do not even know Christ.
When we look at the history of Christianity, we see so much violence, strife and bloodshed done in the name of “being faithful followers of Jesus.” Religion is always used as an excuse for wars and murder and death for others. It was that way in the Hebrew Scriptures and it is that way even today in many parts of the world. We should not be shocked by the clear facts that history gives to us.
On the other hand, we need to hear this teaching that we receive today, both from Moses and from Jesus: God works where God works and God is free.
This never implies that God goes about creating confusion among us humans. We do that all of ourselves. Always we Catholics can be confident in the defined teachings of the Church and we need not think that God is somehow revealing one this to us and something else to others. There is no conflict of this type.
Rather, our conflicts come from reducing God to our own faith and understanding. For instance, we can think that we Catholics have all of the truth and therefore what others have must be false. This is far too narrow a way of thinking. Or we can think that those who are not Catholic cannot be saved by God. Or we can think that those who are not Christian cannot be saved by God. We often have great lists that exclude others for many reasons.
The Irish bishops said in one of their pastoral letters: “The saints repeated it in every age: ‘Love is all’; ‘It is enough to love’; ‘In the evening of life we shall be judged on love’; ‘Oh, I do not regret, not for one moment do I regret, having given my life to love.’ Our judgment will be totally concerned with whether we have loved and how we have loved.”
Somehow our human insecurities makes us want to keep all the love for ourselves instead of recognizing that God loves everyone.
There is another teaching in the Gospel today as well about not harming others. This teaching is phrased in such a way that we can think that it applies only about harming God’s little ones. How strong this teaching can be today as the Catholic Church continues to seek healing from the scandals of sexual abuse of minors!
Even as our first concern must be for those who have been harmed, we must also recognize that Christ’s love calls us to forgive those have caused the harm. Always love and forgiveness are inclusive. This is not an easy lesson to remember, especially when there is always a human tendency to define someone as the enemy and then seek to destroy the enemy.
As we celebrate Eucharist today, we should meditate a bit on our own human condition and as Jesus to open our hearts to healing and forgiveness of others and to a recognition of God’s work in other peoples and other ways of thinking.