Last week in chapter nine of Saint Mark’s Gospel, we learned that the Twelve Apostles were so preoccupied with an internal argument over their own petty privileges and prestige that they could not hear the Lord Jesus as he attempted to teach them about the Paschal Mystery of his passion, death, and Resurrection.
And today in the continuation of that same text, we find that the Twelve were also jealous of those who were not subject to their authority but who nonetheless were preaching and healing in the holy name of Jesus Christ. But lest we be too hard on the Twelve for their cramped way of seeing things, the first lesson today reminds us that Joshua - longtime assistant and eventual successor of Moses - had the same difficulty.
The Book of Numbers reveals that even Moses could not teach, govern, and sanctify the whole people of Israel by himself, and so the Lord bestowed the same Spirit given to Moses on seventy other men to assist Moses in the task of leading the people. And when the seventy men had been selected by name and set apart, two of them were late to what we might call their ordination, and yet the Spirit of God had fallen on them too despite their being absent without leave.
When Joshua realized what had happened, he protested because it seemed to him inappropriate for those who couldn’t bother to show up on time to be given authority among the people, and so he pleaded with Moses to put a stop to it.
“Are you jealous for my sake?” asked Moses. “Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets!” And in the same way, the Lord Jesus taught the Twelve not to inhibit anyone who spoke the truth in his name, even those who were not part of the fellowship which the Lord himself was building around the Twelve to whom he would later give his own authority to teach, sanctify, and govern the Church.
The Church, you see, is not an organization in the way a university or a corporation is an organization. The Church, rather, is an organism, a living body - the Body of Christ, the soul of which is the Holy Spirit.
Today the Church has around 2.4 billion members spread all over the globe, around half of whom are Catholic Christians and the other half of whom are Orthodox and Protestant Christians who are separated from Catholics and from each other by disputes over doctrine and discipline. But anyone who is baptized into the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ is part of the only Church Christ founded, the Church which is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.
And yes, the Church’s life is expressed by and shaped through the work of many institutions: dioceses and parishes, schools and universities, hospitals and charities, religious orders and apostolic societies, and other foundations and associations too numerous to count. But no institution can contain or constrain the Holy Spirit.
In all gatherings of Christians, the same Spirit of God is at work, animating the life of the Church to proclaim the Gospel and fulfill the Great Commission to the ends of the earth and the end of time. And anywhere Christians are engaged in the apostolate, the Church is at work. This point bears repeating: if anyone who is baptized is serving others in any capacity and so bearing witness to Christ, the Church is at work. Never make the mistake of thinking that the Church is not present in a project unless the clergy are involved.
But if the Lord Jesus does not limit those who would bear witness to him by their words or deeds, he does give stern warning to those who accept the responsibility of teaching and serving in his name but then scandalize others or lead them astray by false teaching or bad example.
As we read in the Gospel today: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.” So much for the fantasy that Jesus is a sweet and gentle sage who makes no demands of those who follow him or who simply accepts us as we are without challenge and change.
This solemn warning should be a sobering thought for the priests who harmed children and for the bishops who shielded them from accountability. It likewise applies to those leaders in the Church who teach false doctrine, who fail to admonish sinners, who cause scandal or foment schism, who take advantage of the trust of others, who abuse their position for personal gain, or who lord it over others in vain ambition of the sort demonstrated last week by the Twelve.
The little ones to whom the Lord refers in this verse may be children like the one he stood among the Twelve last week, but this notion can also signify anyone younger or less experienced than ourselves, anyone with less education or fewer resources, anyone who needs something from the Church or looks to us for leadership of any kind.
The point is that while Christ rejoices when anyone leads others to the Kingdom of God, he also enjoins us under grave penalty to refrain from leading others astray by our own misconduct. “If your right hand causes you to sin, cut if off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.” And so too with our feet and eyes.
These sayings are, of course, hyperbole, and the Savior is not asking us here to mutilate ourselves in the search for holiness. He is, rather, teaching us the radical demands of Gospel living and the necessity of seeking constant conversion from sin by preferring nothing to the glory of God. And we must always be mindful of these radical demands so that God’s grace can change us from the inside out, right down to the very roots of our souls, because only then can we live a virtuous life in keeping with the Word of God through the obedience of faith.
It is of this radical way of life that James writes in the second lesson today. Having a comfortable home, elegant clothes, good food, and beautiful things is not immoral, but allowing our possessions to rule our lives and blind us to those who suffer is a path to ruination that lures us into neglecting other people and thereby ignoring their dignity and trying to deny our obligations towards them.
And even more than that, Holy Scripture insists that once the material obligations of our own necessity and propriety are satisfied, everything else we have must be used for the benefit of those in need because the goods of this world are intended by the Creator for the welfare of all his children. You see, before the Throne of Grace we are but stewards of creation and not masters, and so Saint James urges us to understand our obligations to other people as an essential requirement of being friends of Jesus Christ.
Here we must make careful distinctions to avoid falsifying the Gospel. Being wealthy is not immoral, but it can present spiritual dangers because having wealth does not confer entitlements or privileges on those who are prosperous. Instead, being wealthy imposes obligations to assist those who are in need. And that is too easily forgotten by those blessed with wealth. Even more, the Gospel reveals that seeking riches for the sake of being rich is finally a futile way of life while also teaching that something as simple as giving a cup of water to the thirsty is a path to the freedom of the children of God.
Friends, keeping these truths in our hearts and minds and observing them is made much easier when we read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the revealed Word of God in Holy Scripture. And so we should always sing with the Psalmist: “The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The decree of the Lord is trustworthy, giving wisdom to the simple. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever; the ordinances of the Lord are true; all of them just.”
And we find the law of God, the wisdom of God, and the freedom of the children of God in the eternal Word of God made flesh, the Good Shepherd and our great High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the text of my homily for 29 September 2024, the 26th Sunday of the Year.
Pictured above is the Church of Saint Vincent Ferrer in New York City, home of the Saint Joseph Province of Dominican Friars and one of the most beautiful churches in the United States.
Fr Jay Scott Newman