Richard Bollman, S.J.
SCRIPTURE NOTES: 26TH SUNDAY
Numbers 11:25-29; James 5:1-6; Mark 9:38-50
The Letter from James to the Church
takes a kind of harsh turn this morning:
a diatribe against wealthy landowners.
It’s hard to know whether there were any such rich people
in the Christian community to whom the letter is addressed.
But the outcry strikes a perennial theme,
a world where the problem is not so much wealth,
as indifference, exploitation, and low wages.
In this situation, the righteous one, the Christ, is once again rejected,
in the lives of the working poor.
The Gospel of Mark continues directly from last Sunday,
where Jesus held up the child, and spoke a word
about receiving such a child "in my name."
What follows then is a series of teachings
held together by verbal hooks, phrases that echo from one section to the next.
These memory devices were more important than logical development.
So the next sentence, where we begin today,
is important because it also contains the phrase "in your name."
And so a passage of teaching develops linked by phrases
such as "little ones" and "cause to sin" (sometimes translated scandalize)
and then the image of fire and salt.
These are harsh sounding teachings in part,
close to the theme of discipleship that is developed in this part of the Gospel.
The Old Testament story, which serves as a background for some of this,
comes from a moment in Moses’ life where he complained
that he needed help to organize the people, he needed new people
invested with the Spirit. We begin there, in the Book of Numbers.
HOMILY: 26th Sunday B: 2009
Numbers 11:25-29; James 5:1-6; Mark 9:38-50
"Peace among the Churches"
This is teaching directed toward the disciples, the inner group.
You get this week after week now, especially in Mark
that Jesus took a kind of inner circle
close to his concerns, his heart, and his future suffering.
This was never to be a form of elitism,
it was not for the sake of separating the Twelve from other people
because there were many who were drawn to Jesus and learned from him.
You get the impression at times that the inner circle were the slowest.
Jesus had occasion to warn these close followers
about in-fighting, seeking preferment: not to do this.
Don’t go calling people by titles, don’t wonder who is the greatest.
The greatest among you are the ones who serve the others.
Don’t exaggerate your power and your bravery
because the time will come when you will desert me.
It’s like the dangers of clericalism have been with us from the start.
And protection from people who are different: that’s an easy way to succeed.
I know that from my own years of privilege in seminary and church institutions,
it’s just too easy to be comfortable and at home with the like-minded.
So here in this little glimpse of the early training for ministry,
here’s that elitism and spirit of separation coming up among the best he could find.
"There are others out there, not part of our group," they say.
"They seem to know you and use your name
and have success in releasing people from their demons.
Let’s put a stop to that."
But the spirit of Christ is not limited to the inner circle,
the work of God is not limited to what you can see of it on a given Sunday.
For a moment you think: oh my God what’s happening over there at Crossroads.
(I’ve had that thought.)
Or, I hear that people get closer to their Higher Power through AA
than through the retreats we planned, or our Lenten series.
And there it is. God can do manifold work among human communities,
and sometimes that can feel threatening.
We feel that. We wrestle with our own fears
and form judgments based on what book of common worship you are using,
or how the music and media work.
All along, what Jesus points out is that God is being served
wherever people are freed from the demons and called to their good spirits.
And there is a tendency among elitists to be suspicious.
We got a lot of this suspicion when I grew up, about the Protestant churches,
about the revival tents, the spirit isn’t out there with those holy rollers.
And in that way the demons get into us.
We become smug and join the ranks of those who are saved
because we’re so accurate in our prayer or so connected to the right party.
There are a lot of reasons why Catholics have through the years
gotten so stuck on being self-righteous, the only true Church,
and a large element of that spirit derives rom the need of immigrant churches
to pull together, to defend their rights to jobs or education
when the dominant culture wasn’t providing opportunities.
So then whatever are the merits of a Catholic way of life and prayer
it got all muddied up with judgments on others
instead of being who we’re called to be by our own faith and mission.
And so we live in history, we form new views of ourselves, and thank God!
I went back to the pages of Vatican II, the decree on Ecumenism,
to read some lines which could be taken as a kind of explanation
of what Jesus says today:
"Catholics must gladly acknowledge and esteem the truly Christian endowments from our common heritage which are to be found among our separated brethren. It is right and salutary to recognize the riches of Christ and virtuous works in the lives of others who are bearing witness to Christ, sometimes even to the shedding of their blood. For God is always wonderful in His works and worthy of all praise.
Nor should we forget that anything wrought by the grace of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of our separated brethren can be a help to our own edification. Whatever is truly Christian is never contrary to what genuinely belongs to the faith; indeed, it can always bring a deeper realization of the mystery of Christ and the Church."
In other words, they who are not against Christ are for him.
That is ultimately how mid-centry theologians began to include
the ultimate destiny, inherent value, and spiritual depth
even of Buddhism, Hinduism, and other religious way prior to Christ.
They are not standing in the way of the truth,
they too are salt for the earth.
This leaves me with two lessons.
On the one hand, it’s so refreshing to go deeper into Catholic thinking,
Catholic praying and culture, to respect and enjoy
where I’ve come from, where we’ve come from,
Because when you start to know your own religion in deeper detail
you really learn to respect other spiritual journeys.
This is a theme that came up among our different parish committees
when we took a day to look at what is moving us lately:
the question: can we derive more life from just what it is to be Catholic?
It’s a question that stays with me.
And, second, this deeper sense of our own identity
this might protect us from the demons of our own elitism,
the self-righteous side of religious practice and faith.
You know, the "Bellarmine way," that special hope of last chance Christians,
as if what goes on in Mason or Madisonville or downtown or in new Bremen
is not really as good, not as cutting edge.
I wish we all could be spirit-filled so we could perceive the goodness
of Christian Catholic congregations everywhere we travel,
country churches, French cathedrals;
to absorb what God might tell us there, and to say hello to fellow travelers
with a sense of being gathered in along with them,
entering the dominion of God with them.
The spirit has been poured out.
We are in a great age of convergence and spirit and it shall come
when we least expect it, and from even the poor of the world.
Have salt in yourselves then, and be at peace.