The Universal Church invites us to celebrate Sunday, September 29, 2024, as the twenty-sixth Sunday in ordinary time, year B. In the Entrance Antiphon, we pray: “O Lord, you had just cause to judge men as you did: because we sinned against you and disobeyed your will, but now show us your greatness of heart and treat us with your unbounded kindness. Amen.”
The story of Israel’s wandering in the desert for forty years is told in the central part of the Book of Numbers from where the first reading of this day is taken. Moses asks for God’s assistance to meet the needs of complaining Jews in the desert. The spirit of God then comes down on seventy other elders, who act as God’s spokesmen among their people. In the final reading from the Letter of Saint James, in the second reading, the Apostle warns the rich who selfishly exploit the poor and are blind to the needs of the marginalised in the society that God’s anger will fall on them. He condemns self-righteousness and wanton injustice. In the Gospel, Saint Mark shows us Jesus as he continues privately tutoring his followers, asking them to care for the weak and the needy in their midst. After telling them that the greatest of them must be the servant of all, he then ends with a strong warning to them, and us, not to become a stumbling block to anyone striving to follow him. He then tells them to rejoice that the Spirit blows wherever he wills and descends on whomever he chooses. In the course of this Eucharist, let us pray for the courage to see and recognise that God’s Spirit is a gift to all of us and is not the exclusive property of any one person or people.
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!"
Comment
The Book of Numbers is the fourth of the first five books of the Old Testament collectively known as the Pentateuch (from the Greek word for five books) or the Torah (the Hebrew word for the Law). It is divided into four parts. Chapters 1 to 10 give a full numerical strength and structure of Israel as a religious community as it prepares to set out on its march through the desert. The second part, from where our meditation is taken, shows the people in the desert of Kadesh where they rebel against the Lord and experience the bitterness of God’s punishment. Then Moses successfully intercedes with God on their behalf and they receive God’s pardon and mercy. The third part shows the people on their march from Kadesh to Moab which is marked by their revolt and God’s continual presence and mercy on them. The fourth part shows Israel on the plains of Moab, the last place from where they leave to take possession of the Promised Land.
The main feature of the Book of Numbers is the way God guides and protects his people through the desert. They are no longer the shapeless crowd that left Egypt; they are now a holy community, which can now be counted in a detailed census. The desert is a place of transit involving all kinds of difficulties, which tempt the people to rebel against God and Moses.
Moses, as we see in the passage of this day, needs help to govern this rebellious people. He turns to God who advises him to gather seventy elders or heads of families to whom he sends the spirit that had earlier been given to Moses alone.
What lesson can we draw from this passage? We hear that God himself is the source of the spirit which he can give to whoever he likes, sometimes to some doubtful candidates. Moses has the right attitude because he has no intention of monopolising the spirit. He seeks only the people’s welfare and is delighted to see signs of the spirit in others as well. He is not as jealous as the young men who come complaining to him about some elders whom they believe should not be prophesying. They have the same attitude as John in the Gospel message of this day, who complains to Jesus about some people casting out devils in his name without being his followers. Like Moses, Jesus tells his followers to let the people alone because he who is for him cannot at the same time talk ill of him.
We too are sometimes like the young men in this Old Testament reading and John in the Gospel who want to monopolise God’s spirit because we believe it should only come down on us. Let us, as we pray this day, praise God for not only sending his gifts and talents to us but to our brothers and sisters as well. Together with them, combining our gifts and talents, we will be able to build a world of peace, justice, and harmony, especially in Cameroon which is being torn apart by senseless wars in the northwest, southwest, and northern regions. We make our supplication through Christ our Lord. Amen.
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.
Comment
The passage of this day’s meditation severely criticizes the sins of the rich and the well-to-do. In a tone that resembles that of prophets like Isaiah, Amos, or Micah, Saint James condemns the rich for their pride, vanity, greed, and pleasure-seeking tendencies, warning them that God’s judgement is near at hand and that they will come in for some harsh treatment, if they do not repent and treat others, especially the poor, with compassion.
The Church has always taught us that we must eliminate unjust inequalities from our midst. In one of their documents, Gaudium et spes, 66, the Fathers of the Church make an urgent appeal for a more just and fraternal society and call for solidarity in the following words: “ To fulfill the requirement of justice and equity, every effort must be made to put an end as soon as possible to the immense economic inequalities which exist in the world and increase from day to day, linked with individual and social discrimination, provided, of course, that the rights of individuals and the character of each people are not disturbed.”
Well-to-do people should use their resources in the service of others. In this connection, the Church teaches that they have the moral obligation not to keep capital unproductive and to think first of the common good before making investments. Greed, that is the inordinate desire for material things, is one of the deadly sins in the world today. Our Lord also speaks of the moth and the rust that consume earthly treasures and tells us that true treasure is good works and upright action, which will earn us an everlasting reward from God in heaven (Mt. 6:19-21).
On this issue of greed, it is simply unthinkable how much money individuals in our country embezzle for themselves. We hear of powerful individuals of yesterday being sentenced to long terms of imprisonment for helping themselves from the nation’s cash till. We think of the following powerful words of Saint John Paul II: “Africa’s economic problems are compounded by the dishonesty of corrupt government leaders who, in connivance with domestic or foreign private interests, divert national resources for their own profit and transfer public funds to private accounts in foreign banks. This is plain theft, whatever the legal camouflage may be” (Ecclesia in Africa, 113).
Such greed does not spare our Church circles either. We hear of many dioceses being virtually run to the ground by the diocesan authorities, who mismanage and embezzle resources meant to run their dioceses. Greed and mismanagement of funds are cankerworms that are eating deep into our society: be it at the level of the state or the church. So let us pray that the Holy Spirit may enlighten our leaders, circular as well as spiritual, to the need to serve our people, not themselves. Amen.
Gospel acclamation: “Alleluia, alleluia. Your word, O Lord, is truth; consecrate us in the truth. Alleluia.”
Gospel: 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 it 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.'"
Comment
In today’s Gospel, as in Moses’ day, some people refuse to recognise the authority of an exorcist because he does not belong to their camp. Joshua, in the first reading of this day, asks Moses to forbid some people from prophesying in the camp because they had not been in the camp when the spirit of the Lord came down upon them. Moses wisely responded: “If only the whole people of the Lord were prophets, and the Lord gave his Spirit to them all!” (Nm 11: 29).
In the Gospel, John makes a similar appeal to Jesus, “Master, we saw a man who is not one of us casting out devils in your name; and because he was not one of us we tried to stop him” (Mk 9:38). This exorcist has been successful in his ministry, and that success clearly worries Jesus’ disciples, who believe they have the exclusive right to exorcise.
Earlier in the chapter, Saint Mark tells us of a father who appealed to Jesus to heal his son because his disciples had been unable to cure him. Having failed to cure this man’s son, the disciples now feel threatened that an outsider was succeeding where they had failed. They are therefore bent on excluding this outsider from the ministry of healing since he is apparently succeeding where they, the fervent followers of Christ, have failed.
This outsider’s success lays bare their own inability to perform miracles and they see the ministry in terms of rivalry. Seeing this man’s success, the disciples seem to feel diminished, reduced, and lessened as disciples. It is as if their own self-esteem will increase if Christ were to reject the outside exorcist. Like Joshua, in the first reading, they are jealous of outsiders who receive God’s Spirit. Like Moses, Christ reminds his followers of the danger of developing the spirit of exclusivism. He instead invites them to a larger vision of God’s goodness by commanding them to leave the outsider alone. “Anyone who is not against us is for us”, he tells them.
What message can we take home from this reading? Both Moses and Jesus teach us a valuable lesson. We sometimes develop hostile tendencies towards some members of our Christian communities simply because we feel they do not belong to our fold. They are not of our Church, or our religious persuasion, and so we feel that they should, for that mere fact alone, be excluded from our midst. It is a spirit of intolerance that we see even among us Catholics today.
But we fail to recognise the fact that there are good and generous people outside our Church, people who are not Christians but who live better lives than us, Christians. Christ, by accepting the ministry of this outsider, teaches us that we should work for unity and peace rather than promote misunderstanding through unjust criticism.
Division is often caused by arrogance and pride, like the one shown here by the disciples of Christ. But Jesus demands tolerance. The cause of our Church and faith is not served by rejecting other ways of Christian discipleship. The case of Christianity is not served by those who loudly claim, as we so often hear in our society today, that no real good can happen outside the boundaries of our faith and church. But we can take pride in the Christian community to which we belong, that is, our Catholic faith, without denigrating the good work of those who are not in communion with us.
Pope Benedict XVI, peace to his soul, once dedicated one of his weekly audiences to Saint Peter Canisius, a Dutch Jesuit priest of the 16th century, and a great defender of the Church in his native Germany during the Reformation. The Holy Father praised this great saint, who is also a Doctor of the Church, for, among other things, defending the Church without attacking others. This was the period of Reformation when there was much hostility and antagonism between Catholicism and Protestantism under Martin Luther.
Christ calls on each of us to be tolerant. As someone has so rightly put it, Christian tolerance is not a weakness or a lazy acceptance of whatever movement happens to be in vogue. Christian tolerance is a reverence for the truth that is always larger than ourselves; it is recognition of the charity that flourishes beyond the reaches of our borders; it is a profound respect for the freedom of God to move in his chosen ways. It is showing humility before the greatness of God.
Let us pray for tolerance in our midst, especially as we see what havoc religious intolerance is wreaking in our world today: “Lord Jesus, you taught your disciples of old and those of us who carry our crosses behind you these days to show tolerance and understanding towards those who do not share our convictions – religious, social or political. Continue to pour your light on us so we can become truly your sons and daughters who know and promote tolerance, peace, and justice, now and forever. Amen.”
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