26th September 2021
THE SPIRIT OF GOD ENABLES US TO DO GOOD
Nu 11, 25-29;
Ps 19:8,10,12-13,14
Jam 5, 1-6;
Mk 9, 38-43.45.47-48
As we celebrate twenty sixth Sunday of ordinary time, we thank and praise God for the gift of his Spirit to his ministers. These include men and women of all nations and beliefs who have resisted evil and manifested the true Spirit of God in their lives and actions.
Our first reading and gospel have a lot in common. Both of them are manifestations of the fact that God has no favorite (Act 10, 34). He chooses and uses those that please him for his mission. It also proves that the Spirit of God is the one that empowers to do good. In both readings, we see men outside the “camp and the group of disciples” prophesying and preaching in the power of the Holy Spirit; and also casting out devils in the name of Jesus respectively. We also see the zealous and envious disciples getting afraid and worried. Being afraid for their own positions and the authority of their masters, they made efforts to stop them from participating in the ministry and mission of God.
Today, James warns us against oppression, suppression and injustices of all kinds against the weak, the poor and those who do not belong to our, group, fold or class. Rather than oppress and suppress them, we should build and, help them to grow up physically and spiritually. We should not strangle the true spirit of God at work in others due to envy or by being overzealous. Doing this means being unjust like the oppressive rich that James condemned in today’s second reading. Rather, we should be messengers of justice, peace, progress, charity, mercy and compassion. This is what the Holy Father Pope Francis is calling all Christians and Catholics at all levels of faith to do.
In the gospel, John and other disciples let pride and jealousy reign their heart, so, Jesus taught them and also to us about fighting off our temptations daily in order to go to heaven. A temptation of selfishness, a temptation of pride, temptations of greed and temptation of lust are real. Jesus did not mean that we have to cut off our hands, our feet, or our eyes when we sinned, but he means that we should never consent to any temptation in our life. Satan and his disciples are working hard on each of us in order to pull us from the relationship with God and with others. First, they put bad thought or bad desires in our brain, and then if we let those bad thoughts dwell in our brain for sometimes without chastising them, we will fall to sins eventually. If we keep doing bad things, again and again, bad things will become our bad habit, and the consequence will be worse.
Today many no longer think of the final judgment and many prefer to think that there is no hell. Yet the teachings of our Church and of Jesus Himself speak of judgment and of hell. They are not the focus of the teachings of Jesus. Rather they form a backdrop. Jesus really calls us to want all people to follow Him and for all people to seek good and to struggle against sin and evil. This struggle takes place, however, in our freedom. And in our freedom we can choose against God.
So let us pray that all might be prophets, that all might struggle against sin and against harming anyone.Let us give thanks for all who do good and pray that we also may do good.
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