A young man ran to tell Moses: “Look, Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” Then Joshua said: “My Lord Moses, stop them!” Moses answered: “Are you jealous on my account? If only the whole people of the Lord were prophets, and the Lord gave his Spirit to them all!”
Numbers 11: 25-29
John said to Jesus: “Master, we saw a man who is not one of us casting out devils in your name; and because he was not one of us, we tried to stop him.” But Jesus said: “You must not stop him: no one who works a miracle in my name is likely to speak evil of me. Anyone who is not against us is for us.”
Mark 9: 38-43, 45. 47-48
Today’s first reading from Numbers taken with the first part of today’s gospel-reading from Mark would suggest that human communities have, for thousands of years, had to struggle with individuals who believed that they had exclusive rights to territory over which they thought they had a monopoly. There were some in Moses’ camp who wanted Eldad and Medad disqualified from prophesying on the assumption that they had not received the blessing of God’s Spirit. Because Eldad and Medad were not present at the formal investiture, their critics concluded that God’s Spirit had not touched them. Hundreds of years later, Jesus’s disciple John wanted to drum out of town a stranger who, in the name of Jesus. was driving demons out of possessed people. Jesus set John straight by telling him that anyone who was doing good for people in his name was not to be regarded as a rival or an intruder.
The clear message for us is contained in the words of hope uttered by Moses to the young man who wanted Eldad and Medad disqualified: “If only the whole people of the Lord were prophets, and the Lord gave his Spirit to them all!” (Numbers 11: 29)
These two incidents recorded by Mark and the writer of Numbers are surely meant to be a wake-up call to all of us. We need to remind ourselves that, having been identified with Jesus through our Baptism and having committed ourselves to walk in his footsteps, we too have been anointed to be prophets – women and men who, through word and action speak the truth to those around us, alerting them to wrongs that call out to be righted, pointing to injustices crying out to be addressed. The Spirit of God is alive and active in each of us for the benefit of our world and for the needs of our sisters and brothers. But isn’t it true that we can lull God’s Spirit to sleep when we let ourselves be overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problems of our world gripped by climate change and the number of people forced into poverty, hunger and homelessness.
In order to give prophetic voice to needs and injustices surrounding us, we may have to start by informing ourselves. A good starting point for looking at the plight of our world, our common home, might be to dip into Laudato Si, written by Pope Francis and available on the internet. Then there is information published by the United Nations about the distress into which our sisters and brothers are plunged because of war, terrorism and famine. Since the onset of Covid, the number of undernourished people in the African continent has risen to 57 million. In the course of the Israel-Gaza conflict, 35,000 people have died, 52% of whom are women and children.
Catholic Dioceses across the world give a priority to what is called Catholic Mission, an institution which promotes the value of respect for the inherent dignity of all people and dedicates itself to providing justice, fairness and practical outreach to people in need across the world. When we stop to look at the state of our finances, generally at tax-return time, we might ask ourselves just how much we actually contribute to assist needy people, whom we will probably not encounter face-to-face.
We may need to look at how we might go about bridging the gap between our rhetoric for reaching out to the poor and needy and what we actually do to assist them. And let’s not forget that our sisters and brothers in need also share in the prophetic voice, for they, too, have the blessing of God’s Spirit. Are we able to hear God’s Spirit alive and at work in them?
Lest we become trapped in our own first-world comfort, James, in today’s second reading, directs savage criticism at the wealthy in his own community, who have become wealthy at the expense of the poor around them. He accuses them of underpaying and exploiting impoverished workers and living in comfort while their employees struggle for survival. He warns that their wealth will come to nothing for shrouds have no pockets.
At the conclusion of today’s gospel-reading, Mark presents Jesus launching into exaggerated examples to underline his message, that anything that blocks us from promoting the kingdom of God for all and reaching out to the poor and destitute, has to be expunged from the way we go about living our day-to-day lives.
Whatever else we do, we have a responsibility to claim the prophetic voice which is essential to our vocation as followers of Jesus.
