September 27, 2015 –Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Lectionary: 137

 

Reading 1 – Numbers 11: 25-29

 

The LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to Moses.
Taking some of the spirit that was on Moses,
the LORD bestowed it on the seventy elders;
and as the spirit came to rest on them, they prophesied.

Now two men, one named Eldad and the other Medad,
were not in the gathering but had been left in the camp.
They too had been on the list, but had not gone out to the tent;
yet the spirit came to rest on them also,
and they prophesied in the camp.
So, when a young man quickly told Moses,
“Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp, ”
Joshua, son of Nun, who from his youth had been Moses?aide, said,
“Moses, my lord, stop them.”
But Moses answered him,
“Are you jealous for my sake?
Would that all the people of the LORD were prophets!
Would that the LORD might bestow his spirit on them all!”

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 19: 8, 10, 12-13, 14

 

1. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.
   The law of the LORD is perfect,
   refreshing the soul;
   the decree of the LORD is trustworthy,
   giving wisdom to the simple.
2. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.
   The fear of the LORD is pure,
   enduring forever;
   the ordinances of the LORD are true,
   all of them just.
3. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.
   Though your servant is careful of them,
   very diligent in keeping them,
   Yet who can detect failings?
   Cleanse me from my unknown faults!
4. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.
   From wanton sin especially, restrain your servant;
   let it not rule over me.
   Then shall I be blameless and innocent
   of serious sin.
5. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.

Reading 2 – James 5: 1-6

 

Come now, you rich, weep and wail over your impending miseries.
Your wealth has rotted away, your clothes have become moth-eaten,
your gold and silver have corroded,
and that corrosion will be a testimony against you;
it will devour your flesh like a fire.
You have stored up treasure for the last days.
Behold, the wages you withheld from the workers
who harvested your fields are crying aloud;
and the cries of the harvesters
have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
You have lived on earth in luxury and pleasure;
you have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter.
You have condemned;
you have murdered the righteous one;
he offers you no resistance.

 

Gospel – Mark 9: 38-43, 45, 47-48

 

At that time, John said to Jesus,
“Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name,
and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.”
Jesus replied, “Do not prevent him.
There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name
who can at the same time speak ill of me.
For whoever is not against us is for us.
Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink
because you belong to Christ,
amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward.

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin,
it would be better for him if a great millstone
were put around his neck
and he were thrown into the sea.
If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.
It is better for you to enter into life maimed
than with two hands to go into Gehenna,
into the unquenchable fire.
And if your foot causes you to sin, cut if off.
It is better for you to enter into life crippled
than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna.
And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.
Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye
than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna,
where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.'”

 

 

Listen to the Scripture:  click on the link below:

 

http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/15_09_27.mp3

 

26^th Sunday of the Year – B

 

 

WHEN CHRIST ASKS US TO FOLLOW HIM it means a total self-giving on our part.  We do not merely tag along in desultory fashion (only give a little here or a little there), but take up our cross and follow Him.  We are zealous as prophets and as sensitive as saints to the needs of others; we will clear away any obstacles on the road.  We will follow Christ right into heaven.  We must take a penetrating examination of how closely we are following Christ.  Our salvation is at stake.

 

Introduction:  There is nothing soft, sweet, sugary or wishy-washy about the message in the readings of today.  The authors get down to the hard, practical realities of salvation.  Salvation is not a matter of wishful thinking, of pious daydreaming, floating on a pink cloud, or of the self-deception of “doing one’s own thing.”  Christ calls us not to a perfumed soft ashform mattress, but to the cross.

 

Point 1: We are asked to be prophets.  When we hear of Eldad and Medad what do we think about them?  They were two men who in the time of Moses received the Spirit of the Lord and began prophesying.  That is, they began to speak with great enthusiasm of God.  And Moses exclaims, “Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets!  Would that the Lord might bestow his spirit on them all!”

 

But God does bestow his Spirit on us, especially in baptism and confirmation.  In a wide sense we are all made prophets.  A prophet is a man of conscience, a man of God, and a man who gives to people the truths of God.  Prophets of old were acutely conscious of the evils of their time, and aware that God in his steadfast love was faithful to His people and wanted to save them.  Prophets were people willing to take risks in bringing God’s truth to man.  They could not sit by the wayside and say nothing.  They burned with zeal for justice.  John the Baptist, greatest prophet before Christ, is a prime example.  We desperately need such prophets today, and each of us can be a prophet in his own place and time.

 

Point 2: No cheating.  James sounds very blunt in his epistle, but, again, directness and clearness are necessary.  The very wealth of the rich, he says, will be testimony against them on judgement day.  Few of us think of ourselves as being rich; many have a day to day struggle to make ends meet.  They worry about how to take care of bills, about how much to spend, about how to obtain the necessities of life.  Yet it is just because of that that many, too, may resort to cheating.

 

Cheating on our school papers and examinations, cheating on the job by not working full time or by doing poor work, cheating, by misrepresentation when we sell something.

 

James says: “You condemned, even killed, the just man.”  We may say that he is talking to millionaires.  Not so; he may be talking to us.  For Vatican Council II in its decree on The Church Today asks us to remember the saying of the Church Fathers, “Feed the man dying of hunger, because if you have not fed him you have killed him.”  Hundreds of thousands of people in the world today are dying of hunger.  St. Thomas Aquinas, the church’s greatest theologian, taught that, “in extreme necessity all goods are common, that is, all goods are to be shared in common.”

 

Point 3: Get rid of the obstacles.  There is nothing vague or obscure in today’s gospel.  Christ may seem too tough or absolute, but He is concerned about our everlasting happiness.  Nothing has more value than our own eternal life.  We must rid ourselves of anything that would lead us to hell.  No matter what the cost.  If you foot or hand or eye is your undoing, then cut it off or tear it out, says Christ, for it is better to enter life maimed than to be physically intact, and enter hell.

 

Each person must honestly look over his life and see which things are leading him away from God.  It may be a possession, a habit, an attitude, a vice, a friend, an occasion of sin which draws us away from the path which leads to heaven.  We must be ruthless in getting rid of the obstacles to our salvation.  We have only one life on this earth and the time is limited.  And, Christ reminds us; we are either with Him or against Him.

 

Conclusion:  Religion is not a game and our church is not a “play church” Today’s readings may seem a little brutal, but our heavenly Father is direct and straight with us so that there be no misunderstanding.  Because He cares for us He wants us to see clearly the way to heaven.  God gives us the facts and we, who have an intellect and a free will, must make our decisions in the full light of reality.

 

 

 

QUESTIONS THAT MAY LEAD TO OTHER THOUGHTS / REFELCTION/ DISCUSSION / WRITTEN

 

1. What specifically are the things in your life which are obstacles to salvation?

 

2. Is not God’s honesty with us a sign of his love for us?

 

3. How are you doing as a prophet, in comparison to Isaiah, Jeremiah, and John the Baptist? Can you point to a time or an incidence in which you were a prophet?

 

Today we are given a lesson in tolerance, and it is a lesson that nearly everyone needs to learn.

 

1. Every man has a right to his own thoughts. Every man has a right to think things out and to think them through until he comes to his own conclusions and his own beliefs.  And that is a right we should respect. We are often too apt to condemn what we do not understand.  William Penn once said, “Neither despise nor oppose what thou dost not understand.”  Do you agree with this?

 

There are two things we must remember.

 

1. There is far more than one way to God. “God,” as Tennyson has it, “fulfills himself in many ways.” It was once said, “Many are the roads by which God carries his own to heaven.” The world is round, and two people can get to precisely the same destination by starting out in precisely opposite directions.  All roads, if we pursue them long enough and far enough, lead to God. Is this true?  It is a fearful thing for any man or any church to think that he or it has a monopoly of salvation.

 

1. It is necessary to remember that truth is always bigger than any man’s grasp of it. No man can possibly grasp all truth.  The basis of tolerance is not a lazy acceptance of anything.  It is not the feeling that there cannot be assurance anywhere.  The basis of tolerance is simply the realization of the magnitude of the orb of truth.  A philosopher wrote, “Toleration means reverence for all the possibilities of truth, it means acknowledgment that she (truth) dwells in divers mansions, and wears vesture of many colours, and speaks in strange tongues.” Intolerance is a sign both of arrogance and ignorance, for it is a sign that a man believes that there is no truth beyond the truth he sees.  Where do you see intolerance around you?  Is there any intolerance in your life?

 

2. Not only must we concede to every man the right to do his own thinking, we must also concede the right to a man to do his own speaking. Of all democratic rights the dearest is that of liberty of speech. There are, of course, limits.  If a man is inculcating doctrines calculated to destroy morality and to remove the foundations from all civilized and Christian society, he must be combatted.  But the way to combat him is certainly not to eliminate him by force but to prove him wrong.  Once Voltaire laid down the conception of freedom of speech in a vivid sentence. “I hate what you say,” he said, “but I would die for your right to say it.”  Does this mean I have a right to say whatever I think?  Does the news media have such a right too?

 

3. We must remember that any doctrine or belief must finally be judged by the kind of people it produces. The question must always ultimately be, not, “How is a Church governed?” but, “What kind of people does a Church produce?” No man can entirely condemn beliefs which make a man good.  If we remember that, we may be less intolerant. Think of a teaching or doctrine that is unacceptable because of the kind of people it has produced?

 

4. We may hate a man’s beliefs, but we must never hate the man. We may wish to eliminate what he teaches, but we must never wish to eliminate him.

 

 

 

Readings for the 26^th Sunday

1^st – Numbers 11: 25-29

2^nd – James 5: 1-6

Gospel – Mark 9: 38-43, 45, 47-48

 

26^th Sunday in Ordinary Time – B

For the Church: that we may each respond to the gift of the Spirit and announce God’s love in our words and deeds, let us pray to the Lord.

For the grace of discipleship: that we may never prefer anything, even our most treasured possessions, to our relationship with Christ, let us pray to the Lord.

For freedom of spirit: that God will break the chains of jealousy and greed that hold our minds and hearts in bondage, let us pray to the Lord.

For Pope Francis: that God will make fruitful his ministry in the United States and guide him safely on his journey back to Rome, let us pray to the Lord.

For all who exercise leadership in the Church: that the Spirit will guide their motivations and inspire their efforts in strengthening the faith and building unity, let us pray to the Lord.

For openness to the invitations of the Spirit:  that we may welcome all whom God calls to serve the community of faith in ministry and listen for the Spirit’s promptings about new forms and styles of service needed to meet the hungers of human hearts, let us pray to the Lord.

For a renewal of our society: that we may more and more live by God’s Word instead of spending our lives seeking after success or possessions, let us pray to the Lord.

For all who are attending the World Meeting of Families: that they may grow in their knowledge and love of God and have safe travel home, let us pray to the Lord.

For all young people: that God’s Spirit will fill them with wisdom and understanding so that they may correctly perceive the values of life and not be seduced by wealth, fame, or power, let us pray to the Lord.

For all whose faith is weak: that they may grow closer God and not be led astray by the struggles and conflicts within and between faith communities, let us pray to the Lord.

For all who have been cheated or defrauded of their income: that God will overturn the injustice and provide for their needs, let us pray to the Lord.

For a new understanding of money: that God will help us to recognize money as a means to fulfill our responsibilities rather than an end in itself, let us pray to the Lord.

For all children, particularly those who lack food, homes, or healthcare: that God will guide us in providing for these little ones, let us pray to the Lord.

For all victims of abuse: that God will heal their injuries and memories, and help them find safety and protection from further harm, let us pray to the Lord.

For Christians in the Middle East: that God will give them strength, help them to witness to the Gospel, and preserve them from harm, let us pray to the Lord.

For refugees: that God will protect them from harm, guide them to new communities, and help them to use their gifts for the good of the human family, let us pray to the Lord.

For all who have lost homes or livelihoods due to wildfires and for those who are fighting the fires: that God will help to rebuild their lives, courage to face the future and keep them safe from all harm, let us pray to the Lord.

For all who were impacted by the earthquake in Chile: that God will comfort them in their loss, give them strength, and speed the assistance which they need, let us pray to the Lord.

For government leaders and members of Congress: that the Spirit will inspire them with new insights in resolving the budget, protecting for the environment, and addressing immigration, let us pray to the Lord.

For all who serve our nation either militarily or diplomatically: that they may fulfill their duties honorably and return safely to their families, let us pray to the Lord.

For Peace and an end to armed conflicts: that leaders of nations may strive to find new ways to settle disputes, let us pray to the Lord.