by Fr. Jose “Joesum” Sumampong, Jr.
September 26, 2021
Twenty Sixth Sunday in OT (B)
Numbers 11: 25-29 / Psalm 19:8,10,12-14 /
James 5: 1-6 / Mark 9: 38-43,45, 47-48
A LESSON OF OPENING ONE’S FRONTIERS
Word: This gospel reading is a parallel to the first reading (Number 11:25-29) the story of Eldad and Medad. An exorcist who was not one of the inner group of disciples was casting out demons in Jesus’ name. The disciples tried to stop him, “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us” (Mk 9:38). But Jesus was more tolerant, noting that someone using his name for good would not be likely to speak ill of him: “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” (Mk 9:39). Jesus enunciated a good principle for the church in any age—whoever is not against us is for us. Even someone who gives a disciple a drink of water because he bears Jesus’ name will be rewarded.
Jesus had earlier spoken about receiving “little ones,” the humblest members of the community, and the subject is again visited here from a negative perspective. Now Jesus speaks to those who impede the progress of those little ones who follow him: “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” (Mk 9:39). Being a “bad example” is not an insignificant trifle but a serious offense.
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Order: We may think, “These people are not Christians! They do not belong to our group, or to our party.” We may demand, “Show your papers! You are not Catholic, not a practicing Catholic, you don’t belong to my club or my school, you are a leftist or a rightist, an arch-conservative or liberal—hence, I am not listening to you! If I can, I shall silence you, I shall prevent you from acting like this!”
It is a fact, no doubt about it, sectarianism is not yet a thing of the past. Jealousy, rivalry and petty quarrels—even within the Church, do exist. As it existed among the Twelve, in those days. They are bogged down in their positions and dominions. John would like to keep “the power of Christ” for himself.
However, let us not judge the Apostles. Let us rather examine our own behavior. This gospel deals with one of the most burning questions of our own days: is the saving grace of Christ at work only within the “visible” frontiers of the Church? Let us remember the very first message of Pope John Paul II: “Do not be afraid! Open your frontiers!”
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Realities: 1. One day the Sister in school asked the children to write a composition on jealousy and Jerry, the fifth-grader, wrote this one: “Jealousy is MINE because I make it myself. I pick out some guy and go feelin’ jealous. Last year I picked Dick Herrin to be jealous on. I just jelled and jelled on him because he made the first team and I didn’t. Boy! I jealoused him all year. Every time he made a touchdown and me sittin’ on the bench, I added another layer of jealousy to my growing stack. Finally I decided that I hated Dick. Boy! How I hated him all over the place!
“Funny thing about the whole thing was that every time Dick would speak to me, when we met, and then when I just barely nodded, Dick kept right on speaking. He even got me out of a nasty mess with the principal one day. I found out that Dick didn’t know that I was jelling on him, and then one day I said to myself, “What the heck this guy doesn’t even know I’m sore at him. I’m forgetting the whole thing. I’m the only one that’s feeling bad about this mess.’
“Dick and I are good buddies now, and I think that jealousy is a one-sided game. It’s like eating green apples, it doesn’t hurt anybody but yourself, and you get an awful stomach ache from it. (Catechism Stories, JEALOUSY HURTS ONLY YOU)
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2. A little boy complained bitterly to his mother about his playmate Jerry. It seemed that Jerry always hurt him somehow.
Instead of giving him an answer, his mother stood up, got a scale and some of the boy’s building blocks. “Now listen,” she told him, “We’re going to play a little game. First we’ll put a block on the scale which represents one of Jerry’s faults. Tell me one.”
In a jiffy the little boy named one of his playmate’s faults. “And now,” his mother said, “tell me one of his good qualities. Does he perhaps let you ride on his bicycle sometimes?”
The boy had to admit that Jerry had done that many times. So the mother took several blocks and put them onto the opposite side of balance scale.
She kept up the little game until the side of the scale which contained Jerry’s good deeds and qualities far outweighed the bad qualities the little boy kept bringing up about him. (Willi Hoffsuemmer, BALANCING ACT)
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3.A manager of a religious group hired a mechanic to fix his car. When the man arrived, the first thing the manager did was ask him, “What Church do you belong to?” And because he followed a Church other than the manager’s, he refused to hire him. He was equivalently saying that Church affiliation made you a good mechanic or not.
Religion has nothing to do with your being a professional sportsman, mechanic, doctor, professor, artist, cook, driver or businessman. (Barclay, PREJUDICE)
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4.There is a story about two businessmen who were great rivals. When one got a computer the other got two. When one got a cellular phone the other got two. When one built a storehouse the other built two. One day an angel appeared to one of them and offered, “you can ask for anything you like and you will get it. However, your rival will get two of whatever you ask for?” “You mean,” he asked, “if I asked for $1,000,000 I would get it?” “Yes you would get it,” answered the angel, “but your rival will get $2,000,000.”
“How soon do I have to answer?” asked the businessman. “I will be back tomorrow morning for the answer.” That night the businessman tossed and turned but when the angel came back he had his answer ready. “I will settle,” he said, “for one blind eye!”
Fr. Jerry Pierce has written this reflection. “Jealousy and rivalry are to be found everywhere that there are people, but in some way they are the special vices of religious and so-called holy people. I have known many ‘holy’ people who were doing good work but who got most upset when others did the same. There are some who establish fiefdoms of loving, but woe betide the person who steps into that fiefdom unannounced or uninvited. St. John of the Cross used to say that spiritual riches can be just as destructive and – more subtly so – than material riches. A businessman may be openly working to make money and a politician openly seeking power – but a cleric may be seeking a bishopric through a self-seeking loyalty, or a sister seeking adulation through her apparent self-sacrificing zeal for the poor. Both of them can at the same time be seething with jealousy towards anyone who may appear to be a rival on their “turf.”
“Should we be surprised that these things happen? If we are we have not read the Bible, the book that never hides the human weakness of its heroes. We find jealousy raising its ugly head among the disciples in today’s gospel.” (Gerry Pierse, C.Ss.R., Sundays Into Silence, pp. 296-297)
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Direction : O Lord, grant us faith, the faith that removes the mask from the world and manifest God in all things; the faith that enables everything to be seen in another light; that shows us the greatness of God and lets us see our own littleness; that shows us Christ where our eyes see only a poor person; that shows us the Savior where we feel only pain. (Prayer for the Faith that Overcomes All, Part One, Blessed Charles Foucauld <1858-1916> Religious, Hermit, and Founder)