First Reading
26th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle B – 2009 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.'”
What wonderful readings we have today that speak so much about how God works in our world! Far too often our ideas of God are too small and too limited. We can get possessive of our faith and not believe that others have the same faith that we have. We can try to limit the workings of God.
The first reading today, from the Book of Numbers, describes how the Spirit of God came upon other besides Moses—even on those who had not gone out to the tent. The first thing that we notice is that religion can reject everything that does not follow the rules—and God does not act that way. Instead, God gives the Spirit abundantly and even outside of our rules.
The Gospel today, from Saint Mark, teaches the same lesson: God works as God wants. Anyone is free to invoke the name of Jesus, even those who do not follow the way of Jesus. How easily we Christians can get offended by those who use the name of Jesus in ways that we are not comfortable with. We are often at odds with one another among the groups that claim to follow the Lord Jesus.
Sometimes others who follow Christ get upset with us Catholics because we do not allow them to receive communion freely in our Churches. Sometimes I have had this text used to pressure me to think that such open communion is fine. Yet it is clear from this text that the one who was driving out demons in the name of Jesus was not trying to become part of the followers of Christ.
Communion in the early Church always had great importance. Communion means a common belief, not just receiving the consecrated body and blood of the Lord. When we all have a common belief, then there is communion among us as well as the possibility of receiving the consecrated body and blood of our Lord.
Let us pray today that we can have a deep communion of belief among all who follow the Lord Jesus Christ and all who invoke His holy Name. Let us pray that the lack of sharing in the consecrated body and blood of the Lord will keep us aware of the need to continue our efforts to be one. Let us pray that we will always try to recognize the Spirit of the Lord at work wherever that Spirit is.