Then the Lord came down in the cloud and
spoke to him, and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on
the seventy elders; and when the spirit rested upon them, they
prophesied. But they did not do so again.
Two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other
named Medad, and the spirit rested on them; they were among those
registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they
prophesied in the camp.
And a young man ran and told Moses, ‘Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.’
And Joshua son of Nun, the assistant of Moses, one of his chosen men, said, ‘My lord Moses, stop them!’
But Moses said to him, ‘Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!’(Numbers 11:25-29)
============================
John said to him, ‘Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.’
But Jesus said, ‘Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in
my name will be able soon afterwards to speak evil of me.
Whoever is not against us is for us.
For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because
you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.
‘If any of you put a stumbling-block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.
If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to
enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.
And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you
to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell.,
And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you
to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to
be thrown into hell,
where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.(Mark 9:38-48)
----------------------------------------------------
One of the lessons I took from these readings is that
God refuses to be restricted by our presuppositions or plans. God's
grace and God's gifts don't always come to us in ways that we expect.
Often we miss these moments of encounter because they do not fit our
expectations.
As a result we miss the grace offered us because it didn’t
follow our established norms. We run the risk of missing our time of
visitation.
While God is a God of order, He is also a God of surprises.
Who would have thought that the Holy One of Israel, who forbade the
making of images, would become a human being, born of a virgin?
Who would
have thought that the God who has no beginning or end would die on a
cross?
Who would have thought that the God who fed His people during
their trek through the wilderness would become their Food for the
Journey?
Who would have thought that the God who led His people out of
slavery would make them heirs of the Heavenly Kingdom?
Who would have
thought that to believe is to be open to God’s surprises?
The liturgy
provides us with signposts along the path that leads us to the
definitive encounter with the Risen Lord.
This passage from the Book of Numbers gives us a brief encounter with the God
of surprises. God knows what He is doing, even though we may have a
better plan.
We hear how Eldad and Medad failed to show up for the
gathering of the elders because they felt themselves to be weak and
unworthy. But the Good Shepherd sought out the lost sheep and poured out
His Spirit upon them. Immediately they began to exercise the gifts of
praying, preaching and praising God as the Spirit moved them.
Because
God is a God of surprises, He is not bound by our liturgical forms. Like
the wind, He blows where He wills. He surprises the humble by exalting
them.
Believing in a God of surprises, are we willing to receive the
Lord in all His distressing disguises? We may be surprised if we open
the ears of our hearts to hear the voice of mercy calling us to
repentance and faith. If we are willing to humble ourselves before the
Lord, we will find ourselves being raised up from glory to glory.
A good starting place for each of us the Sacred Word.
By
means of the Scriptures God engages us in a heart-to-heart conversation.
The Word of the Lord, when received in faith, is more precious than
gold and sweeter than honey to the soul.
If we wish to satisfy the
longings of our souls, we must drink deeply from the springs of
salvation. The things of this world can help sustain human life but
cannot satisfy our deeper hunger.
We are called by God to feast at the
Banquet of the Lamb and to eat of the Bread that comes down from heaven.
God surprises us again. He emptied Himself of all majesty and made us
rich through his poverty. By himself becoming a curse, Christ has given
us a blessing.
By dying on the Cross, Christ has given each of us
eternal life.
The Gospel passage is a powerful
reminder that God is a God of surprises. He is free to do mighty deeds
through the instrumentality of whomever He chooses.
Confronted by these
surprises, we are challenged to identify the motives of our hearts. Only
then can we overcome the prejudice that keeps us from the bond of love
and unitythat the Father offers us in Christ.
Many of us are
like the disciples in this Gospel passage. We are ready to silence others
who have success in bringing sinners to the Lord because they do not
belong to our communion of faith.
Christ’s admonition is most needed
today. Anyone who works miracles in His name cannot at the same time be
against His mission.
If sinners are brought to repent of the sins and to
accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, we can assume that the Spirit of
God is working through the messenger. The surprise: God is working to
bring about the new creation, using some very strange people in the
process.
We need to resist the temptation to limit the grace of Christ.
Christ would not have us hinder the movements of the Spirit. Rather, He
would have us rejoice that the Seed of the Word is being planted.
Jesus is the Lord of Lords and King of the universe. He is
not the special possession of any particular Church or faith communion.
He refuses to be put into a tidy little religious box.
The love of God
and the mercy of His heart are neither limited nor constricted. There is
plenty mercy and abundant compassion for everyone.
The surprise of all
surprises: the unseen God took to Himself a visible face.
The all-holy
God chose to be a companion of sinners.
The just God chose to manifest
His power by performing works of mercy.
The Creator of the universe
chose to recreate a flawed world.
He Who once walked in the Garden chose
to walk the paths of Galilee making the lame, the deaf and the blind
whole.
As heirs of the Kingdom, we act and pray in the name of Jesus,
trusting that He will intercede for us before the Father of all Who
desires to forgive, to heal and strengthen us and to bring us peace.
May the Lord grant us the grace to align our wills with His.
May He fill our hearts that we can learn to live simply thereby
allowing others to simply live.
May we strive to conform our lives to
Christ, so that we may become the instruments whereby the whole family
of humankind will be made whole.
Let us come to know and to seek the
path to Christ that passes through every human heart - even the most
sinful, those who are most insecure and hardened.
And when the Lord
returns in glory, may He bring us all together into everlasting life.
Amen.
Father Jerome Machar, OSCO
