The Twenty-Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time

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September 30, 2018

Numbers 11:25-29; Psalm 19; James 5:1-6; Mark 9:38-43, 45-48

Our readings teach us to focus on the larger goals around us rather than being concerned with protecting our individual roles and positions. The point is that the Holy Spirit is bigger than our expectations and will do whatever serves God’s interests.

In the first reading, we see that seventy elders are chosen from the community to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but two of the men are not in the gathering when the Spirt was bestowed. According to the expectations of the community, they were not ordained, but the Holy Spirit does not obey humans, but God alone, and the Spirit ordained those two men regardless of where they were located. The Spirit gifted these men with the power to preach and Moses wisely encouraged the community to ask them as divinely chosen.

The same happens in the Gospel when the disciples report to Jesus that someone was driving out demons in his name. He surprises his friends by encouraging the work of that man because no one can perform a mighty deed in his name and also harm him. The point is that we have to look for those who are our allies, but we might find them in the unlikeliest of places. It is good to have support, even if it upsets our understanding of how that support should occur.

Let’s apply that to the church today because the Holy Spirit can act outside of church leadership and structures. It means that we have to train ourselves to look at matters differently. We are unaccustomed to doing that, but if we are going to free our minds to look for solutions, we have to be free to abandon some of our paradigms.

A church friend told me the other day that he wants every bishop to preach for a year of their failings as church leaders. I said that I don’t think I want that. Instead of having them preach, I would rather have the bishops listen to others preach for a year and it might be wise for them to listen to people outside the church. We learn when we listen, and listening is at the heart of discipleship.

  I’m even cautious to be preaching because I would rather have a dialogue with you and I want to be able to honor your experiences. I do not have the answers and I realize that asking questions are more helpful than having answers. Neither I nor anyone else should be given the privilege to preach you until you first experience my care for you and that you find it credible and authentic. Once you tell me I have effectively and accurately listened to your experiences, learned of your suffering, shared your joys, perhaps then I can speak. Together, we can strive, and seek, and search, and discover how God is working in our lives,

The Spirit has a wide berth and only honors the will of God. My best guess is that the Spirit is just at the beginning stages of bringing about the Spirit of Vatican II where the priest, prophet, and kingship of the laity is recognized, and their voices are honored. Many rich viewpoints are offered to us because they are people who care about the life of the church. Let us not resist the work of the Spirit but learn to cooperate with it. It is our time as church leaders to silence our tongues, to hone our listening skills, to discern the signs of the times, and to empower those hearts are in tune with the Lords because those who are working for the greater good of God’s kingdom are not against us but are with us for the long run. Let us give life to and honor the good work others are doing because it is for God’s greater glory. Whoever is not against us is on our side.

Scripture for Daily Mass

First Reading: 

Monday: (Job 1) LORD said to Satan, "Have you noticed my servant Job, and that there is no one on earth like him, blameless and upright, fearing God and avoiding evil?"
But Satan answered the LORD and said, "Is it for nothing that Job is God-fearing?

Tuesday: (Job 3) Job opened his mouth and cursed his day. Job spoke out and said: Perish the day on which I was born, the night when they said, "The child is a boy!"

Wednesday: (Job 9) Job answered his friends and said: I know well that it is so;
but how can a man be justified before God? Should one wish to contend with him, he could not answer him once in a thousand times. God is wise in heart and mighty in strength; who has withstood him and remained unscathed?

Thursday: (Job 19) Job said: Pity me, pity me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has struck me! Why do you hound me as though you were divine, and insatiably prey upon me. But as for me, I know that my Vindicator lives,

Friday (Job 38) The LORD addressed Job out of the storm and said: Have you ever in your lifetime commanded the morning and shown the dawn its place for taking hold of the ends of the earth, till the wicked are shaken from its surface? The earth is changed as is clay by the seal, and dyed as though it were a garment; But from the wicked the light is withheld, and the arm of pride is shattered.

Saturday (Job 42) Job answered the LORD and said: I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be hindered. I have dealt with great things that I do not understand; things too wonderful for me, which I cannot know. I had heard of you by word of mouth, but now my eye has seen you. Therefore, I disown what I have said, and repent in dust and ashes.

Gospel: 

Monday: (Luke 9) John said in reply, "Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow in our company." Jesus said to him, "Do not prevent him, for whoever is not against you is for you."

Tuesday: (Matthew 18) "See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father."

Wednesday (Luke 9) Someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go."
Jesus answered him, "Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head." And to another he said, "Follow me." But he replied, "Lord, let me go first and bury my father." But he answered him, "Let the dead bury their dead.

Thursday (Luke 10) Jesus appointed seventy-two other disciples whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. He said to them,
"The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest
to send out laborers for his harvest.

Friday (Luke 10) Jesus said to them, "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon,
they would long ago have repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

Saturday (Luke 10) The seventy-two disciples returned rejoicing and said to Jesus,
"Lord, even the demons are subject to us because of your name." Jesus said, "I have observed Satan fall like lightning from the sky.

Saints of the Week

September 30: Jerome, priest and doctor (342-420), studied Greek and Latin as a young man after his baptism by Pope Liberius. He learned Hebrew when he became a monk and after ordination he studied scripture with Gregory Nazianzen in Constantinople. He became secretary to the Pope when he was asked to translate the Bible into Latin.

October 1: These of Lisieux, doctor (1873-1897), entered the Carmelites at age 15 and died at age 24 from tuberculosis. During her illness, Pauline, her prioress, asked her to write about her life in the convent. These stories are captured in "The Story of a Soul." He focused on her "little way" of pursuing holiness in everyday life.

October 2: The Guardian Angels are messengers and intermediaries between God and humans. They help us in our struggle against evil and they serve as guardians, the feast we celebrate today. Raphael is one of the guardians written about in the Book of Tobit. A memorial was added to the Roman calendar In 1670 in thanksgiving for their assistance.

October 3: Francis Borgia, S.J. became a duke at age 33. When his wife died and his eight children were grown, he joined the Jesuits. His preaching brought many people to the church and when he served as Superior General, the Society increased dramatically in Spain and Portugal. He established many missions in the new territories.

October 4: Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) was from the wealthy Bernardone family who sold silk cloths. After serving as soldier as a prisoner of war, Francis chose to serve God and the poor. He felt called to repair God's house, which he thought was a church. His father was angry that he used family money so he disinherited him. He began to preach repentance and recruited others to his way of life. His order is known for poverty, simplicity, humble service, and delighting in creation.

October 6: Bruno, priest (1030-1101), became a professor at Rheims and diocesan chancellor. He gave up his riches and began to live as a hermit with six other men. They had disdain for the rampant clerical corruption. The bishop of Grenoble gave them land in the Chartreuse mountains and they began the first Carthusian monastery. After serving in Rome for a few years, Bruno was given permission to found a second monastery in Calabria.

This Week in Jesuit History

·      Sep 30, 1911. President William Howard Taft visited Saint Louis University and declared the football season open.

·      Oct 1, 1546. Isabel Roser was released from her Jesuit vows by St Ignatius after eight months.

·      Oct 2, 1964. Fr. General Janssens suffered a stroke and died three days later. During his generalate, the Society grew from 53 to 85 provinces, and from 28,839 to 35,968 members.

·      Oct 3, 1901. In France, religious persecution broke out afresh with the passing of Waldeck Rousseau's "Loi d'Association."

·      Oct 4, 1820. In Rome, great troubles arose before and during the Twentieth General Congregation, caused by Fr. Petrucci's intrigues. He sought to wreck the Society and was deposed from his office as Vicar General, though supported by Cardinal della Genga (afterwards Leo XII).

·      Oct 5, 1981. In a letter to Father General Arrupe, Pope John Paul II appointed Paolo Dezza as his personal delegate to govern the Society of Jesus, with Fr. Pittau as coadjutor.

·      Oct 6, 1773. In London, Dr James Talbot, the Vicar Apostolic, promulgated the Brief of Suppression and sent copies to Maryland and Pennsylvania.