TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – YEAR B
The question on the minds of almost all Americans this week is whether the allegations against Judge Brett Kavanaugh will be proven sufficiently to prevent him from taking a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States. While we await the answer to that question, the liturgy for this Sunday in Ordinary Time introduces to a few people who find others trying to prevent them from carrying out their plans. They draw attention dramatically to things that might prevent us from entering into eternal life. And they ask us to reflect on whether we are doing enough to prevent the abuse of innocent people, mainly women and young people.
The two attempts at prevention in today’s Scripture passages, while well-meaning, are futile; and they caution us against trying to stifle the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. In the passage from Numbers, Eldad and Medad are reveling in the outpouring of the spirit. They are pouring their hearts out in prophetic speech when Joshua steps in and tries to pour cold water on them because they had not come to the seminar that he was conducting. “Moses, my lord, stop them,” he whines to the old man. But wise old Moses knows better than to attempt to prevent the Spirit from working on the people he had chosen. “Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets!” he rebukes Joshua.
A similar move on the part of the apostle John is recorded by St. Mark. “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.” Notice that John said, “tried to prevent,” indicating that the efforts at prohibition were ineffective. And Jesus ratifies that. “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.”
There is a an almost irresistible temptation among religious believers to become clannish, exclusive, obsessed with membership credentials, and contemptuous of outsiders. In the days before ecumenism became so much of our experience, we Catholics were especially prone to that temptation. Pope Francis has attempted to counter that attitude of exclusiveness; but, ironically, his efforts have exposed how common it remains among our co-religionists. Whether we acknowledge it or not, whether we like it or not, the Spirit is supremely free and prone to almost whimsical in his choice of human instruments.
Meanwhile, St. James draws our attention to what can truly prevent us from entering into possession of the Kingdom of God. It has nothing to do with attendance at meetings or belonging to the right crowd. It has to do with wrong living, as opposed to the genuine religion that manifests itself in the care of widows and orphans in their distress and keeping oneself unstained by this world. The rich landowners who cheat their harvesters of a just wage, the attachment to luxury and pleasure combined with an indifference to the suffering of impoverished neighbors stand in the way of anyone trying to pass through the pearly gates. James is graphic in his imagery. “Your silver and gold have corroded, and that corrosion will be a testimony against you; it will devour your flesh like fire.”
Jesus had earlier recommended the avoidance of any occasion of sin that would bring us into that peril. And he, like James, is graphic in his imagery of cutting off limbs and gouging out eyes. But, after all, he is trying to prevent his hearers from being thrown into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire.”
Jesus stark warning against causing one of these little ones to sin. “It would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.” That, in turn, raises questions about whether we have done, and are doing, and will continue to do more to prevent any type of abuse perpetrated against vulnerable individuals: the elderly, women, young people and children.
Did we do enough in the past? Clearly and tragically, the leadership of our Church failed miserably in the past in their responsibility to prevent abuse and punish it when it occurred. Are we doing enough now? After 2002, we thought that we were. But the revelations of this summer call that easy assumption into question. And the political drama unfolding on the national stage, as well as the controversy sparked by Archbishop Vigano’s letter serves to underline questions about our commitment to engage in a constructive conversation about the root causes of abuse in the past and strategies to prevent it in the future.
Will we do better from here on? That is still an open question. But Jesus and St. James today will not let us escape recognizing the consequences of what will happen if we fail to do much, much better.
May the Lord pour out on us the spirit that filled Eldad and Medad and the elders. May we have the grace to acknowledge that no one who works mighty deeds to change human hearts can be dismissed because he or she does not belong to our Church or political party. Most importantly, may we never fail to welcome even one child in Jesus’ name and see to it that he or she is fully shielded from all abuse.