No Monopoly on the Spirit

September 26, Sunday

Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

How easily we mistrust those who are different from us, of other races, peoples, political ideas or religions…. We label them and judge them without taking into account who they are, their stories, the good they do… But here comes Jesus, whose heart beats for all, and tells us that we have to be open-minded and unprejudiced, and recognize all the good in others and in their works, whoever they are. It is the same Spirit who works in us and in all those who do good. May the Lord open our minds and hearts today.

 

First Reading: Numbers 11:25-29

So Moses went out and told the people what God had said. He called together seventy of the leaders and had them stand around the Tent. God came down in a cloud and spoke to Moses and took some of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy leaders. When the Spirit rested on them they prophesied. But they didn’t continue; it was a onetime event.

 Meanwhile two men, Eldad and Medad, had stayed in the camp. They were listed as leaders but they didn’t leave camp to go to the Tent. Still, the Spirit also rested on them and they prophesied in the camp.

A young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp!”

Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses’ right-hand man since his youth, said, “Moses, master! Stop them!”

But Moses said, “Are you jealous for me? Would that all God’s people were prophets. Would that God would put his Spirit on all of them.”

Second Reading: James 5:1-6
Destroying Your Life from Within

And a final word to you arrogant rich: Take some lessons in lament. You’ll need buckets for the tears when the crash comes upon you. Your money is corrupt and your fine clothes stink. Your greedy luxuries are a cancer in your gut, destroying your life from within. You thought you were piling up wealth. What you’ve piled up is judgment.

^4-6 All the workers you’ve exploited and cheated cry out for judgment. The groans of the workers you used and abused are a roar in the ears of the Master Avenger. You’ve looted the earth and lived it up. But all you’ll have to show for it is a fatter than usual corpse. In fact, what you’ve done is condemn and murder perfectly good persons, who stand there and take it.

 

Gospel: Mark 9:38-43, 45,47-48

John spoke up, “Teacher, we saw a man using your name to expel demons and we stopped him because he wasn’t in our group.”

Jesus wasn’t pleased. “Don’t stop him. No one can use my name to do something good and powerful, and in the next breath cut me down. If he’s not an enemy, he’s an ally. Why, anyone by just giving you a cup of water in my name is on our side. Count on it that God will notice.

 “On the other hand, if you give one of these simple, childlike believers a hard time, bullying or taking advantage of their simple trust, you’ll soon wish you hadn’t. You’d be better off dropped in the middle of the lake with a millstone around your neck.

 “If your hand or your foot gets in God’s way, chop it off and throw it away. You’re better off maimed or lame and alive than the proud owner of two hands and two feet, godless in a furnace of eternal fire. And if your eye distracts you from God, pull it out and throw it away. You’re better off one-eyed and alive than exercising your twenty-twenty vision from inside the fire of hell.

 

Prayer
God our Father,
pour out on us and on all people
the life-giving Spirit of your Son.
Let him open our minds,
that we may see your beauty and truth
in an ever-new light.
Let him open our hearts
that we may receive from him every day
a fresh provision of courage.
Let him pour out in all people
a love that is respectful and tolerant.
All this we dare to ask you
in the name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

 

Reflection:

Let you not end up in the garbage bin

The disciples of Jesus are confronted by a huge confusion: How can someone who does not follow us, who does not belong to our group, perform the same wonders or even greater ones that were copyrighted to us? If someone successfully occupies the field where we are called to carry out our mission, is there cause for rejoicing or concern? Who is authorized to use the name of Jesus? To whom has he bestowed his Spirit, the power that heals every disease? John and his companions are not happy because the other person does not belong to their group.

How do we understand who is with us and who is against us? At certain moments, we Christians feel that we are the only beloved children of God and people who do not belong to our group and our religion are outsiders who cannot be in the love and mercy of God.

But on our journey, as we look up and look around, we realise that there are many generous, sincere, well-disposed companions walking alongside us. We did not see them because we have been looking through the coloured glass of our presumptions of being the only true Church and the only true disciples. Envy and jealousy prevented us from recognizing the good done by those who were different from us.

In our communities, many serve our brothers and sisters, carrying out the tasks with diligence and generosity; however, jealousy and envy often ruin our efforts. And all the works we do, ceases to be a service but turns out to be means of affirming ourselves, our social status and our ego.

St. Mark reminds his community to make every effort to make their lives beneficial to the community. God has blessed us with eyes, hands and legs to observe and reach out to the needs of our brothers and sisters to do them good. Whoever wastes their chance to do good in this world loses, forever, the unique opportunity that God has offered him or her; ruins himself or herself like garbage. The word “Gehenna” was the place where all the garbage of the city was dumped.

The Gospel speaks of chopping off one’s hand or leg or even removing one’s eye – if we use them to do wrongs and fail to use them to do good. Indeed, it shocks the listeners, but we should remember that it is not an announcement of eternal damnation for the wrong-doers. Rather, it is an urgent call to cut off our wrong behaviours, attitudes, life-styles and ideologies, so that we wouldn’t let our lives be wasted in the garbage bin.

Video available on Youtube: Let you not end up in the garbage bin