TWO FURIOUS MEN

Reflections on the Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Numbers 11:25-29; James 5:1-6; Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48

The liturgy presents us with two men, sad and upset for very similar reasons. The first reading from the book of Numbers presents the case of Joshua, Moses’ trusted assistant “from his youth” and his future successor. The Lord obliges Moses to select 70 elders/leaders to assist him in his responsibilities (11:16). Joshua notices that two of them, Eldad and Medad “had been on the list but had not gone out to the tent. They had been left in the camp”. And when they too receive their share of the spirit and begin to prophesy, Joshua becomes furious. He intervenes and tells Moses, “My Lord, stop them”. He could not admit that these men, who though chosen did not respond to his summons, could prophesy. He wants to exclude them from the club.

On the other hand, the Gospel paints the picture of an angry John. He seems to be scandalized because he had seen someone casting out demons in the name of Jesus, and this someone was not even a member of the disciples’ club. We usually imagine John as a young and compassionate man, leaning on Jesus’ bosom at the Last Supper. The Gospel presents the other face of the ‘son of thunder’, who turns out to be a jealous man bent on preventing a man ‘outside his club’ from performing miracles. Like Joshua, John claims the authority to set clearly defined limits and boundaries between “those who follow us” and the “others”. These two angry men seem to think they can decide who the Spirit of God can work upon and cannot.

Our society never seems to run short of such angry, jealous, and intolerant people, does it? We love to play with identity cards and define the boundaries between ‘insiders’ versus ‘outsiders’. Examples are galore: natives vs settlers; left vs right; North vs South; Hindus vs Muslims; Tamils vs non-Tamils; Catholics vs Protestants; and the list goes on. Linguistic, religious, social, cultural, geographic, ideological, caste, political, racial, and other identities are often used as markers to regulate, define, or influence our ways of interacting, thinking, relating, and voting. The ‘other’ is dehumanised into a threat that requires to be stopped. Exclusion and sectarianism exist in our families and Churches too. These boundaries between ‘us’ and ‘them’ are sometimes obvious and usually well-masked.

Moses and Jesus respond to this threat of sectarianism in a similar fashion. Moses asks, “Are you jealous for my sake?” Jesus categorically states, “Do not prevent him”. They don’t seem to be threatened when the boundaries between ‘us’ and ‘them’ are breached. They understand that the ‘Spirit blows where it pleases’. They wish to be facilitators of the Spirit’s work and therefore don’t claim authority over the boundaries of the Spirit’s ministry. They are aware that the mission at hand surpasses them and that those from the ‘them’ camp could also serve the mission even if they are not on ‘our’ lists. They are ‘Catholics’ par excellence.

The word Catholic (from Latin catholicus and Greek katholikos) means universal. This radically ‘Catholic’ openness does not destroy our identity but strengthens it. They challenge us to move from fear and confrontation to dialogue aimed at understanding, enrichment, and mutual amazement. How can we enter this logic of radical catholicity? The readings provide us with three important pointers.

1. We are all called to the conviction of Moses and Jesus that the Spirit of God is a gift for all. The Holy Spirit is not the private property of any club, sect, or congregation. Further, the Spirit is certainly not limited by the many artificial boundaries we so love to erect between us.

2. We are all called to be prophets. Moses tells Joshua, “Would that all the people of the LORD were prophets! Would that the LORD might bestow his spirit on them all!”. The Spirit inspires us all to proclaim God’s word in our lives in a permanent and daily Pentecost.

3. We need to disassociate ministries from their unfortunate association with authority. The ministry to prophecy (for Moses in the first reading) and the ministry to cast our demons (for Jesus in the gospel) are not claims to power or stepping stones to climb the ladder of hierarchy. Priests, religious, laity, or bishops, our mission is to serve. Our ministries are not excuses for exclusion.

Let us uproot the exclusivist and sectarian ideologies that have spread roots in our collective psyche. Let us strive to become truly ‘Catholic’, facilitating (and not restricting) the Spirit’s work in our daily Pentecost and our common mission to serve.