INTRODUCTION
There is a lot of work to do. The kingdom of God needs more spirit-filled men and women. Though it may seem that the kingdom of God is suffering more violence everyday but the power of the Holy Spirit is in a continuous work in the Church. God calls men and women from every nation and language to propagate the message of the Kingdom. This is the message that runs through the readings of today. At the tail end of the message is an invitation for us to be more open to the workings of the Spirit who operates without boundary and to accept the fact that God calls anyone He wants, when He wants and where He wants for the sole purpose of realising the same common goal which is the continuous building of his kingdom.
FIRST READING: Numbers 11:25-29
The Book of Numbers dates back to the post exilic period of the life and history of the Israelites. When the people were finally liberated from the clutch of the Egyptians around 6th century BC, it was the intention of the hagiographers (Jewish priests) to fix the broken nation back together and to keep it faithful to God. Hence the birth of this wonderful book. The Chapter 11 has two stories of God’s responses to the continuing complaints of the wandering people (Israelites) of the desert. First, they had lamented about penury of good meals especially the absence of meat in their diet. They labelled the manna as relatively unfavorable with respect to the variety of foods they ate while they were in Egypt. Moses felt burdened by and incapable of satisfying the endless request of the people and therefore appealed to God that he can no longer handle the people alone. God heard his plea and told him to select seventy elders — experienced men from among the tribes — whom He (God) would appoint as leaders of the people under him (Moses) and assemble them in the Tent of Meeting. Moses did as instructed by God, and there God bestowed on them part of the Spirit He had given to Moses. At once, they began to prophesy—a sign to the people that God had appointed them as His representatives. This scene prefigured the experience of the apostles at Pentecost. While this was taking place, Joshua, a close follower and aide to Moses complained about two men named Eldad and Medad (among the 70 men) who had also been given the spirit of prophesy despite their absence from the Spirit-giving ordination ceremony in the Tent of Meeting. Moses asked Joshua, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets!” and reminded him gently that God is free to choose anyone He pleases as His prophet. Moses promptly corrected Joshua for showing the tendency toward institutionalizing the power and presence of God.
Through the sacred rite of baptism we have all become God’s ministers and God’s prophets. We are filled with His Spirit and empowered to interpret God’s vision and message to the people around us. No one has the monopoly of God’s power. But we must understand that each is called to handle a specific office, and sometimes certain offices or positions of authority call for a higher responsibility. However, sometimes we tend to measure “the gift of the Spirit” with the position of authority. The Spirit has been and must be used in our different roles in the edification of the Body of Christ. Therefore we should not grow jealous of those serving the community in positions of greater authority or working for the community in different venues.
SECOND READING: James 5:1-6
The passage from James illustrates how the rich cause scandals through their unjust treatment of laborers and their gross violation of the principles of social justice. Today’s passage is a straightforward moral condemnation and a strong denunciation of the unscrupulous rich who enrich themselves by treating others unfairly and spend their riches in self-indulgence. Withholding a day-laborer’s wage was a terrible act of injustice, tantamount to murder in the agricultural economy of the ancient Middle East. James is merciless in his condemnation of ill-gotten wealth.
Christened through baptism, every Christian is commissioned to work for social justice through peaceable (rather than violent), means. Pope Paul VI’s encyclical on social justice echoes the tradition of James. Jean Paul Sartre, the French existentialist made the false statement: “Hell is other people!” But the truth is that hell is the “person of only one book.” The Hell is actually me when I fail to live out my responsibility towards others and towards God. The reading invites us to question our conduct in the society and in the Church. Let us think of those who work under us. Do we think that what they receive as salary is worth their daily labour and extra services they render? Sometimes we allow the principle of legalism to condition our Christian virtue of charity. The principle of “What is due for” does not always correspond to the reality of life. If what is due for Mr A is 1000$ and he is in dare need to help due to certain circumstances, the justice that St. James speaks of today is not just limited to payment of due wages but calls for the treatment of the other as a person with face, with feelings, with concrete needs that should neither be quantified nor manipulated at our advantage.
GOSPEL: Mark 9:38-45,47-48
Today’s Gospel is a lesson on tolerance as exemplary Christian living.
Mark relates almost the same story we find in the first reading. He points out human tendency of unmonitored attitude of intolerance. The apostles wanted to reserve God’s love and healing power to themselves as the “sole owners” and “authorized distributors”. We hear John complaining to Jesus that a stranger (who is not part of their company) was driving out demons in His name. They want Jesus to condemn the man. As occasionally unsuccessful exorcists, they may have been jealous of this stranger. Jesus, however, reprimands his disciples for their jealousy and suspicion and invites them to broaden their vision and to recognize God’s power wherever it is found. Like Moses in the first reading, Jesus challenges a rigid understanding of ministerial legitimacy. He wants the apostles to rejoice in the good that others are doing, for God is the Doer of all good. Jesus enunciates a principle for his disciples: “Anyone who is not against us is for us.” God can and does use anyone to do His work. The invitation to proclaim the good news of salvation, in both word and work, is not restricted to the twelve apostles or seventy disciples but extended to anyone who will hear and respond to it “in Jesus’ name.” The Church has no monopoly on God’s work, truth, love or power to heal and reconcile. The work of the Kingdom is not confined to the baptized, although it is certainly our special work. This lesson is especially valuable today. Intolerance rising from fear and envy has a long history in the Christian Church and Christians are still known for a spirit of intolerance. Ask the average person on the street what he/she thinks is a Christian attitude, and he/she will use words like “judgmental,” “narrow-minded,” “dogmatic,” “condemning,” and “intolerant.” The road to the brotherly love Jesus commands must begin with each of us. The cause of Christ is not served by one’s rejecting other ways to God than one’s own, or by one’s claiming that no real good can take place outside the boundaries of one’s own denomination. It is through mutual respect that we find common ground with others and discover strengths in different beliefs. Wherever we see God’s work being done, we should give it our support and be ready to work together with those doing the work, whether they are Christians or not, believers or not.
The second part of the gospel warns against giving scandal. The ugly nature of the sin of scandal is that it is infectious. It simply means putting the faith of the other at jeopardy as a result of our misguided way of living. And Jesus insists on the seriousness of this sin by instructing that it is better one is mutilated than causing others to sin:
INTERPRETING JESUS’ WORD OF SELF-MUTILATION
Our hands become instruments of sin according to what we touch and how we touch, in lust or greed or violence. Our feet are used for sin according to the places we have them take us. Our eyes become doorways for sins according to what we choose to look at or refuse to look at. However, it is important to understand that, in these passages about “plucking out an eye or cutting off a hand,” Jesus is not speaking literally. We have more sins than we have bodily parts. Besides, even if all offending parts were removed, our hearts and minds — the source of all sins– would still be intact. Hence, these sayings are actually about our attitudes, dispositions, and inclinations. Jesus is inviting us to integrate our bodies into our following of Christ, so that our hands become instruments of compassion, healing and comfort, our feet help us to bring the Gospel to the world, and our eyes learn to see the truth, goodness and beauty all around us.
By these startling words about self-mutilation, Jesus also means that we must cut out of our lives all practices that keep us away from God and retain only those habits that draw us closer to God. Jesus is setting before all his disciples the one supreme goal in life that is worth any sacrifice. That goal is God Himself and His will for our lives, which alone leads us to everlasting peace and happiness. Just as a doctor might remove a limb or some part of the body in order to preserve the life of the whole body, so we must be ready to part with anything which causes us to sin and which leads us or others to spiritual death. Billy Graham has a fantastic way of summing up this Gospel message by concluding his Crusades with a final challenge: “Decide! Cut away anything that prevents you from a radical decision for Jesus Christ! Decide for Christ!”
LIFE MESSAGE:
LET US AVOID CONDUCTS THAT CAN LEAD TO SCANDAL
We give scandal and become stumbling blocks to others:
a. when we are unkind or unjust in our treatment of them,
b. when we reject them because of their weakness, faults or sins,
c. when we humiliate them by hurting their pride and damaging their self-image,
d. when we discourage, ignore, or refuse to accept them,
e. when we ridicule them or deflate their dreams,
f.when we follow a double standard: “Do as I say; don’t do as I do,”
g. when we set standards which are so high that we are unable to meet them ourselves, and
h. when we become judgmental of those who are still struggling to reach a level of commitment that we feel is too low to be useful.
On the other hand, we become good role models:
a. when we support and guide others in moments of doubt, weakness, and suffering,
b. when we increase other people’s self-confidence by accepting them as they are and enabling them to discover their hidden talents,
c. when we help them to grow by inspiring and correcting them,
d. when we forgive them and listen to them with patience, and
e. when we make ourselves examples of Christian witnessing.
WE MUST LEARN TO WEAR THE VIRTUE OF TOLERANCE
Christian tolerance asks that we bear with the weaknesses of others, without condoning the evil they do. Intolerance is a sign of a weak faith. Intolerance is also ineffective. It does nothing but damage to the cause it seeks to defend. When we attack a heretic, we don’t change his mind, for the most part. We just give him an audience. To ban a book, is, almost surely, to make it a best seller. Condemning a sinner immediately draws people to defend him. An intolerant attitude will alienate, rather than attract, sinners. Only genuine agape love can overcome hatred. The Church should display this patient love to a hate-filled world. The Church is expected to present Christ to the world. How can the Church present Christ when it is arrogant or intolerant rather than loving others as Christ loves us? We cannot exalt love by encouraging hate. Hence, let us try both to learn and to practice the virtue of Christian tolerance in our interfaith and ecumenical endeavors by:
a. remaining true to our conscience and beliefs,
b. respecting the differences we encounter,
c. working together on projects of common interest,
d. affirming what is good in the other person’s position, even when we disagree on certain things, and,
e. allowing the light of Christ to shine through our loving words and deeds.
3. ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT HE WHO IS NOT AGAINST US IS WITH US
Here is a tendency in us to downgrade, condemn, slander, ridicule, put down and make defamatory remarks against anybody who is different from us. Since the Church of Christ is scandalously divided on denominational lines, it is in our nature to think other denominations as inferior and ridicule or condemn them. When some lay people do better than the clergy in preaching and healing ministry, it is natural for the latter to feel envious of them and question their authority. The Gospel invites us to respect the gifts and charisms of all those who work in Jesus’ name. Though we need not and cannot accept all the viewpoints of those who are opposed to us, Jesus teaches us to respect them and their viewpoints. All have a right to their own views and thoughts. How wrong we are in thinking that we alone are right, all others are wrong; we alone possess the truth, others do not; we alone possess a monopoly over salvation. This does not mean we accept anything and everything from anybody and agree with it. We too should have our own personal convictions. Tolerance involves a respect for various aspects and facets of the truth. Intolerance gives the impression that nothing is true beyond what our eyes can see. Again, is this also not a sign of arrogance? How difficult it is for us not to hate the person himself when we hate his/her views/ beliefs/ opinions! Jesus calls us to build up a truly tolerant and inclusive society (in consonance with Fr. Anthony Kadavil).
PRAYER
Lord, You are everything we need. The more we know You, the more we discover that we have more to adjust in our Christian life. May we be filled with your spirit today so that we may learn how to live with one another in a world often marked by the spirit of indifference, intolerance and injustice, for You alone can keep us in the right path till we come to our Eternal Homeland with You, who live and reign with the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God, forever and ever. Amen.
PAX VOBIS!
