Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Reading
I
Nm
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!"
Responsorial
Psalm
Ps 19:8, 10,
12-13, 14
R. (9a) The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.
The law of the LORD is perfect,
refreshing the soul;
the decree of the LORD is trustworthy,
giving wisdom to the simple.
R. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.
The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever;
the ordinances of the LORD are true,
all of them just.
R. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.
Though your servant is careful of them,
very diligent in keeping them,
yet who can detect failings?
Cleanse me from my unknown faults!
R. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.
From wanton sin especially, restrain your servant;
let it not rule over me.
then shall I be blameless and innocent
of serious sin.
R. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.
Jas 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
Mk 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
than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna,
where 'their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.'"
Commentary
Today’s First Reading, Yahweh takes some of the spirit that is on Moses and bestows it on several elders. Two characters, Eldad and Medad, though not called elders, are among those chosen by Moses. Instead of going to the meeting tent with the seventy, they remain in the camp, where the spirit comes upon them also so that they prophesy. Prophecy here is understood as an ecstatic or charismatic phenomenon. Joshua, Moses; young assistant, objects to this and pleads with Moses to stop them. Moses instead voices the wish that the Lord might bestow his spirit on all the people that all may be prophets. The acknowledgement of Eldad and Medad’s prophetic charism by Moses, against the objections of Joshua, serves to protect the independence of the prophetic office from those who would subject it to institutional control. It is not Moses’ spirit but rather Yahweh’s spirit that is upon them. Moses approves of the distribution of Yahweh’s spirit and is not concerned that his own prestige might diminish. What appears to be a diminishing of Moses’ position in the sharing of the spirit leads instead to a further delineation of his uniqueness.
In the Second
Reading, James
vigorously condemns the rich for being unjust.
Unjust wealth is shown to be profitless in the end.
What’s more, this type of wealth is lethal for those who posses it
because it bears testimony against its owner for not being spent on orphans,
widows, or the needy. Unjust wealth
then becomes a vice instead of a virtue. Fiery
punishment is a common biblical description of judgment and it is common in New
Testament eschatological discussions to speak of wrath treasured up in heaven.
The rich are not condemned just because they are rich; they are condemned
for their injustice. In today’s
Second Reading, the condemnation is due to withholding wages from workers, a
crime that is so serious that it cries to God in a way similar to Abel’s blood
(Gen 4:10), and the sin of Sodom (Gen 19:13).
James calls attention to the role of God as judge, to remind the
Continuing with the theme of the radical demands of discipleship, today’s Gospel Reading raises two very important concerns:
1. Envy and intolerance of others (vv 38-41)
2. Scandalizing others (vv 42-48)
The first concern is exposed when
John and the other disciples try to exclude a non-member from using Jesus’
name in his ministry. This
non-member who happened to be an exorcist, was using Jesus’ name as a powerful
tool. Jesus attitude is one of
tolerance and is grounded in the idea that anyone who exorcized in his name
would be slow to speak wrongly of him. This
example of tolerance may have been used to criticize tendencies toward
exclusivism and to dismantle certain “cliques” in the early Church.
The second concern (scandalizing others) is met with very harsh imagery.
The “little ones” may refer to the members of the community of the
disciples. The sayings regarding “cutting off” of body parts in order to
enter life or the kingdom and avoid Gehenna, have a communal dimension and
served to exclude members of the Church who committed offenses.
The term Gehenna, according to 2 Kings 23:10, was the
Reflection
I remember a few years ago, I was in the presence of a Bishop when he complained against an altarserver after she inadvertently stood in his place, asking who had died and made her bishop. I also remember a time when I was preparing to baptize a child and a fellow deacon approached me to complain about a communion minister who had done something that he was not supposed to do because in the complainer’s opinion, only a deacon should do it. In both instances my heart was broken. Haven’t we learned anything in the two thousand years that have passed since Jesus’ death and resurrection? Apparently, some of us have forgotten that we are not a group of elitist but rather followers of Jesus Christ who came to serve and not to be served! We cannot put constraints on God by believing that he will not or cannot work through others who are not members of our special group. Today’s first reading and Gospel make it clear that God’s Spirit works through anyone, even those whom we would least expect. Just as Jesus brings salvation to everyone and does not ration salvation to a particular few, so too are all empowered to minister to one another – each in his/her own capacity. If we fail to accept that anyone can be empowered by God to carry out a particular mission – despite their past and despite their affiliation to another group – then we fail to accept the one who empowers them who is God himself. Just like the elders in the story from the Book of Numbers and the disciples in Mark’s Gospel, some of God’s people have carved out a little pedestal for themselves where they can sit above the rest and wallow in their self-glory. Whether this way of thinking comes from clergy, religious, or laity we must be careful that the resulting actions and words do not lead scandal in others.
It has been said that the greatest single cause of atheism in the world is Christians who proclaim their faith in God with their words, yet crucify him with their actions. It seems that for many, the radical demands of discipleship is too much to bear: "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”. As true disciples, we are called to avoid any occasion that may lead us and others to sin. Jesus has taught us that sacrifices and works mean nothing if there is not the interior sacrifice of a contrite and humble heart. To choose God – be become a disciple is to reject all that is contrary to God. Discipleship means accepting disadvantages in the economic area, in power, and in anything else that can become a vice and a hindrance to our salvation and the salvation of others. To accept the words of Jesus means we must live his words. It is not enough only to meditate on the Word of God, or to pray with it, or to penetrate it with our minds. Being an authentic listener of God’s word means being obedient to the Word and doing what it says. Our entire life must be animated by God’s Word and if we live as such we will never be cause of scandal.
Biblical Sources
New American Bible; Brown, R. K., and Comfort, P. W. (trans.) and Douglas, J. D., (ed.) “The New Greek-English Interlinear New Testament”; United States Conference of Catholic Bishops; Budd, P. J. “Numbers”; Burns, R. J., “Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers”; Davids, P., “Commentary on James”; Leahy, T. W., “Commentary on The Epistle of James”; Kingsbury, J. D., “The Christology of Mark’s Gospel”; Schweizer, E., “The Good News According to Mark”; Tuckett, C. (ed.), “The Messianic Secret”; “The Collegeville Bible Commentary”; Brown, Raymond E., S.S., “Introduction to the New Testament”; Brown, Fitzmyer, and Murphy (ed.) “The New Jerome Biblical Commentary”.
Reflection by:
Deacon Lazaro J. Ulloa