Walking with Jesus: 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

For Sunday, September 29, 2024

Numbers 11:25-29; James 5:1-6; Mark 9:8-43, 45, 47-48

I come to the Church to be nourished, knowing I just can’t make it in this world by myself: I need God today. I’m hurting … I need encouragement … I just don’t know where I can turn next … Lord, please help me today, Your suffering servant. Is this where I am today? What do I need from God today for me? So many have asked me to pray for this person and that one … I’m important and I need YOU too, Lord. The decision is ours — God lets us choose if we want to be with Him or not. We don’t make our choices known verbally but rather by how we live our lives. We know this and make resolutions to ourselves: I will change … maybe I’ll begin tomorrow or next week. Let’s put these thoughts in the concrete in a different way: Right now, today, do I consider myself to be spiritual or religious? This can be a very problematic question because it demonstrates a profound misunderstanding of the human person.

We encounter the spiritual through the tangible. This is what religion is: the tangible, audible, visible, touchable and seeable ways in which daily living connects with the spiritual — with God. So if I’m not religious then I’m disconnected from the practices, teachings, rituals, and sacraments that are given to us by God. What lesser things bind me ... take up my time, my interests? Am I spending too much time, interest, and money on these lesser treasures? Do they make me disinterested in God, finding myself not being a person of love and forgiveness? The readings dwell on moments that keep me from  God … distract me from God … make me choose me over the interests of family and loved ones … make me forget that I was created not for a life for me, but for living according for God’s plan as an instrument of His love, forgiveness and care. Is that me today?

The first reading starts with an interesting story: Moses has been given the spirit of prophecy with 70 selected others so that all can share in the burden of leadership. Two of them are absent but still receive the spirit separately — and we can hear “that’s not fair” from the others. The roots of jealousy go deep and they interfere with God’s gifts of caring and love for all. Does this carry over in my life when I’m “robbed” of the distinction of being the best — the highest — the most qualified? Does my ego prohibit God’s gifts from reaching their fullest potential because I want and need to receive the credit and applause?

James shows how this so easily can be magnified among the wealthy who have foolishly and ravenously hoarded the earth’s treasures. Being preoccupied with their own comfort, they have ignored the needs of others. James bluntly states that clothes are moth-eaten when they are not worn, suggesting that the wealthy not only have amassed more than they need, they also have failed to share their abundance with those who are suffering and in need. I need money … possessions for me ... rather than sharing it. James also reveals how the rich have gained their wealth at the expense of those they employ, especially by holding back wages. He says their self-indulgence works to their own ruin. What James condemns is the injustice and inhumanity that so frequently … too frequently ... accompanies it. It turns me into a non-caring individual, focused on being the most important and the most needy. Is that who I am?

Jesus asks: “What am I doing? Am I performing works of mercy in His name?” He uses the example of giving a cup of water: It doesn’t sound like much, but in a world where water is scarce it can be the difference between life and death. Do I hold back my help? Does this cause scandal? Am I loving or hurting; inspiring or refusing to reach out? He uses deliberate exaggeration to prove a point — a serious point — to lead another away from God into sin: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for them … if a great millstone were put around their neck and thrown into the sea. … If your hand … foot … eye causes you to sin … get rid of it … or being thrown into Gehenna will be the option.” [Mark 9:47-48] Gehenna was a valley just outside the city of Jerusalem where the early Canaanites once offered human sacrifices. In Jesus’ time this was a garbage dump where refuse was constantly being burned. The stench that arose was a constant reminder of avoidance, horribleness and ugliness … and to stay away from it at all costs. Down through the ages, Gehenna became the symbol of the unquenchable fires of the afterlife. Am I working my life plan toward heaven or toward hell? Isn’t that the bottom line?

So I reflect on:

• Do I reflect on one hard but true thing someone said to me that I needed to hear? Was this a long time ago? Why does it still stay with me? Have I prayed over this encounter? Why not?
   
• Do I look at the times I have used “truth” dishonorably to get my way, or to harm another or create difficulty for someone I envied? Obviously I’m not speaking as a person of God.

Sacred Space 2024 states:

“Divisions can be formed on many grounds — who is in or out, who belongs and by what criteria. Jesus’ way is that of union, of working together with Him and for Him. Lord, may we concentrate on the deeper values and not get caught in surface matters that break harmony.

“Jesus, You desire unity with You and with one another, just as You want integrity for us in our own lives. Give us the wisdom to choose what is beneficial and the freedom to let go of what is not.”