Twenty Sixth Sunday of the year - September 26, 2021
Readings: Numbers 11:25-29; James 5:1-6; Mark 9:38-43,
45, 47-48
This incident tells that we as
humans limit God who is all-powerful. He belongs to all and everything belongs
to Him. The liturgy of the day invites us to go beyond our narrow mindedness
and see the goodness of God around us.
In the first reading, we understand
that Moses, more than 3000 years ago knew God’s ways of sending down his
blessings. The Israelites whom he was leading to the Promised Land had clear
ideas about God’s holiness. They made their camp in the valley, far from the
mountain where they believed God lived. Halfway between the camp and the
mountain they built a special tent, a place of meeting between God and their
leader Moses. Anyone who strayed to the mountain was put to death; he or she
had trespassed into God’s territory. Similarly, they believed that God would
not trespass into their own territory by coming into the camp. The lines were
clearly drawn. Everything was neatly worked out. They believed they knew where
God belonged and where He did not belong.
At the same time, God cannot be
limited. This bitter truth dawned on them the day they were consecrating
seventy elders as Moses’ assistants. As we read in the first reading, the
seventy elders had been selected beforehand. On the day of their consecration
they were to present themselves in the Tent of Meeting where the Lord would
impose on them some of the spirit that was in Moses. On the appointed day they
all turned up except two, Eldad and Medad. Who knows why they felt to turn up?
Did they oversleep, were they drunk, or did they simply forget? It doesn’t
matter. The important thing is that when the spirit of the Lord descended on
the sixty-eight men in the Tent of Meeting, it also descended on these two who
were still in the camp. And they began to prophesy exactly as the other
sixty-eight in the Tent.
Here we see how God deals with
humans. God goes beyond the human borders. This might have really given a shock
to the Israelites.
On the other hand we see in the
Gospel, James and John, the Sons of Thunder, report to Jesus how he tried to
stop a man who did not belong to their group casting out demons in Jesus’ name.
Why did he do that? Because, according to his poor theology, God should limit
himself to their group. But Jesus, the new Moses was there to correct him: “Do
not stop him. ... Whoever is not against us is for us” (Mark 9:39-40). Do not
stop him. He is doing a good job. It is by their fruit you will know them, not
by their foliage.
The Second Vatican Documents too
stresses on the point that the Spirit of the Lord is active in other religion
too. In our multi-religious context, we need to understand that God is present
everywhere and he sows the seed of Goodness in other religion and it is our
duty as Christians to recognize that Goodness of God and promote them. We as
Christians have a better ability through our baptism to recognize the ways of
the Lord. Wherever there is goodness the Spirit of the Lord is active and at
work in our world today.
(You are most welcome to add your
thoughts and reflections in the comment section below)
Happy Sunday
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