18 May. Wednesday, Week 7

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1st Reading: James 4:13-17

Avoiding arrogance and boasting

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.” Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin.

Gospel: Mark 9:38-40

Jesus corrects the apostles for blocking others from acting in his name

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 afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us.

Bible

Respecting other people’s convictions

As a man of wisdom, Jesus reprimanded his disciples for their envy and fear. Feeling threatened, or at least slighted, by some villager who went about using the name of Jesus to expel demons, they said indignantly to Jesus, “We tried to stop him, because he is not of our company!” But his reply was decisive, based on his unique wisdom. He did not inquire about the doctrinal position of the other man but landed on solid, common sense ground. “No one can perform a miracle in my name and at the same time speak ill of me. Anyone who is not against us is with us.” Such a response, totally free of envy and fear, totally relaxed with nothing to lose, is not easily learned, but is the fruit of wise reflection. It marks a person who is at peace, and therefore secure enough to allow others also to be free.

This is seen more clearly by turning to the Epistle of James whose central injunction advises against arrogance, pretentious claims and selfish hoarding of resources. Such a life can easily fall apart, “You have no idea what kind of life will be yours tomorrow.” The truly wise person is rooted in genuine values, not like persons in search of easy profit who quickly move off somewhere else. If we walk life’s path with wisdom, we become relaxed, generous and trustful, and walk along that path with Jesus.

Whoever is not against us is for us

In Mark’s gospel we often find a clash between Jesus and his disciples. Today’s gospel is one example of that. The disciples had a somewhat black and white view of people. Only those who were “one of us,” as they put it, could be trusted to do the Lord’s work. Jesus had a much more nuanced view of people than his disciples. He could see that even those whom he had not formally called to become one of his disciples could be doing God’s life-giving work. Indeed, he makes the very generous spirited statement, “Anyone who is not against us is for us.” That might be a good principle to take to heart in the times in which we live. There are a lot of people who are not explicitly for the church, in the sense of practising their faith in the way we have come to understand that, and, yet, they are not against the church either. The spirit of today’s gospel is that we work to build bridges with all those who in some way share the church’s mission to bring life where there is death, wholeness where there is brokenness, relief where there is suffering. We can be partners in mission with those who are “not one of us” in the strict sense. In these times we need the vision Jesus displays in today’s gospel rather than that displayed by his disciples. [MH]

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