It seems that competitiveness pervades everything we do these days. And this competitiveness is taught from the time we are small children. Even in our conversations with others, how often are we waiting to respond with our own two cents or “score points” by interjecting our own opinions, instead of really listening to the other? How often are we trying to outdo others?
In the first reading at today’s Mass (Numbers 11, 25-29), we see how Moses regarded the “opposition” or the “competition.” The account tells us that a young man ran to relate some unofficial prophets. He told Moses: “Look, Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” Moses’ response showed a wonderful generosity of spirit: “If only the whole people of the Lord were prophets, and the Lord gave His Spirit to them all!” The Gospel reading (Mark 9, 37-47) is an exact parallel, and the response of Jesus’ is just like that of Moses: “Anyone who is not against us is for us.”
One of the lessons to be gleaned from all of this is that the Holy Spirit is nobody’s “property” or sole possession. The Holy Spirit blows wherever it wills (John 3, 8). And let’s remember that “prophecy” is not like “telling the future,” but looking at the past and the present (and God’s movement there), and letting them say something about the direction we are headed. The Holy Spirit is God’s gift to the Church and the Spirit guides us in this process of discernment.
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In the document Nostra Aetate, the Second Vatican Council stated: “The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these [non-Christian] religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all people.”
In a similar way, the author C.S. Lewis remarked that “it would be very surprising if the Light of the World, Jesus Christ, were not reflected in some way in every part of the world. When we see good being done by anyone, Christian or not, we see Christ’s face, in full light or in reflection.” Please, Lord, help us keep our eyes wide open this week – in order to see your Light.
