26th Sunday of the Year
First of all, just a few observations concerning the sayings of Jesus in todays gospel. The sayings of Jesus, as quoted here by St. Mark, are rather over the top. They tend to send shivers down our civilised spines. But in fact it was never Mark's intention that we should take these sayings literally. Because, literally, they make no sense. Jesus is merely stringing together a series of Jewish proverbs, sayings that would have been familiar to his audience. What he is saying is that sin is as much part of our lives as our eyes or our limbs. Sin is an integral part of us and of the human condition. We are full of inconsistencies, of inner contradictions. It is a constant factor in our lives and, as such, must be constantly addressed. As is obvious from today's gospel, his inner circle of disciples did not escape these inherent contradictions, this sinfulness. At the end of the day, priority must be given to the human spirit.
There's a parallel problem in both the communities for whom the first and third readings were composed. It revolves around the exercise of leadership. Though writing almost 800 years apart, each writer has experienced leaders who believe their role is to mediate God's presence in the life of their communities, instead of simply pointing out that presence. We priests in particular tend to believe that we drag God down from heaven into this world. But God was present in creation before we came along. The OT had three major institutions, three major figures: The King, the Priest and the Prophet. The King ruled and kept order in society. The Priest cultivated the worship of God. The Prophet held the priest and the King to account. The prophet pointed out the failures and the shortcomings that were scandalizing people, preventing people from recognizing God.
Our first reading has to do with the role of prophets. Prophets belonged to a special school, or a recognized institution, or a trade union. You had to belong officially to that trade union of prophets before you could practice prophesy in society. Yet here we have those two outsiders, Eldad and Medad, who didn't go through the "official rituals," practicing the trade. Then Joshua, the leader of the prophets Trade Union movement, went along to Moses and pleaded with him: "My Lord Moses, stop them exercising prophetic ministry."
But Moses does not regard these outsiders as a threat to his authority. In fact Moses holds the opposite opinion. "Are you jealous for my sake?" he asks Joshua. "Would that all the people were prophets! Would that the Lord might bestow His spirit on them all!" This is a wonderful religious insight on the part of Moses: God's gifts are not diminished through distribution. Moses is not threatened by goodness outside his own chosen circle.
Moses instructs Joshua, who was to be his successor, that he's never to limit the way God's word is given to the community. Prophets don't have to get the authority structure's permission in order to prophesy. God's spirit goes where God alone intends that spirit to go.
The Gospel runs along the same track. But, in this situation, the author deals with "driving out demons," not prophecy. When John boasts to Jesus that he and the others stopped someone who "does not follow us" from performing that ministry, he receives an unexpected response. "Do not prevent him!" Jesus commands. "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." Goodness, from whatever quarter, is to be embraced.
This reading is important for Mark, since the first miracle Jesus works in this Gospel is exorcising a demon; it sets the pattern for all Christian ministry: the eradication of evil from our daily lives. Even the exercise of that essential ministry can't be restricted by the authority structure. When Church leaders attempt to limit God's actions in the community, they are sinfully restricting God's power.
Jesus calls each one of us to tolerance. Christian tolerance is not weakness. Neither is it 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 a recognition of the charity that flourishes beyond our own borders. It is a profound respect for the freedom of God to move in his own chosen ways. It is humility before the greatness of God. After all, if God risks hoping in us, why should we deny his hope in others?
Though all of us want to rid our world of the selfish evils to which James refers in the second reading (James 5: 1-6), Mark and the author of Numbers believes that the first step in this process is to stop restricting God's power for good, which is already at work in our faith communities.