Willothepooh

 Num
11:25-29; James 5:1-6; Mark 9:38-48

    One of the most influential people, besides Jesus Christ,
who have ever lived, was the Indian hero, Mahatma Gandhi. I read about him many
years ago and I still like to read about him. One of the things I would never
forget about Gandhi is the fact that, at one time, he was refused admission to
worship in a Christian Church in South Africa, just because he was
colored. From that day onwards, he turned his back on Christianity. However,
even as a Hindu, Gandhi believed in the unique power of Christ’s teachings and
practiced the saying of Christ; “Love your enemy”. What I’m trying to say is this; I wonder
where he is now—in heaven, in hell, in purgatory? Can this man, just because he
did not belong to the visible group of Christ’s followers be separated forever
from God? I hope not. But if you think otherwise, you should really make an
effort to ponder the words of God in today’s readings.

    In the Gospel, Jesus’ disciples
were complaining that some people not belonging to their circle were working
miracles. In fact, they were expecting Jesus to stop these people. But Jesus
said to them “anyone who is not against us is with us”. What did he mean? Jesus
meant that anyone who is attached to God and struggle against the self-centered
forces of evil is on his side. In other words, it is wrong to assume that only
those who have consciously accepted Christ as a personal savior will be saved
and will be able to do the will of God.

    Long time ago, in Moses’ time,
the same sort of situation happened. We heard in today’s first reading that Moses
who was unable to carry the whole load of leadership appealed to God. So God
“took some of the Spirit that was on Moses and put it on the 70 elders. When
the Spirit rested upon them, they stared to prophesy”. But then, two of them,
in the person of Eldad and Medad, who had not gone to the tent (hence, were
considered out of their circle), were also prophesizing! So, some people
objected. But Moses answered, “Are you jealous on my account? If only the whole
people of the Lord were prophets, and the Lord give his Spirit to them all!”

  The reading clearly tells us that
the Spirit of the Divine Truth is bigger than anyone can think of it. No body
can grasp the whole truth. And so, we who are gathered here shouldn’t think
that we have the exclusive rights to the full TRUTH. In saying this, we are not
proposing that we must tolerate everything for if we do, we will teach nothing.
We must hold on to the truth that Jesus is the unique reflection of God, the
fullness of divine revelation, and that the Church he founded is the Catholic
Church. But at the same time, we recognize that all religions share in the
Divine Truth and in the works of God.

    St James, in the second reading
was reprimanding the rich people in his community, saying that their wealth is
all rotting because they were so stubborn to listen to the TRUTH. Now, you
listen to this; [having heard the words of God today] if you still think that
the non-Christians are all condemned to hell, if you still so proud as to
disrespect others who believe and worship differently, your faith is rotting.

   In order to belong to Christ,
what really matter is to get rid of anything that leads us away from God, and
to give “a cup of water to the needy”—In short, to have access to the TRUTH is
to LOVE GOD and to LOVE OUR NEIGHBOURS.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006 at 8:38 am and is filed under Sunday Homily. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.