Nm 11:25-29; Jas 5:1-6; Mk 9:38-43, 45, 47-48

Feeling very ill, a tough businessman went to see his doctor. After examining him, the doctor backed away and said, “I regret having to tell you this, but you have an advanced case of highly infectious rabies. It appears you’ve had it for some time. It will almost certainly be fatal.” In shock, the man asked the doctor for pen and paper. “Do you want to write your will?” the doctor asked. “No! I want to make a list of all the people I want to bite!” the man replied.

Today’s readings give us a strong warning against jealousy, intolerance and scandal.  In the first reading, we find jealousy, in its destructive form of envy, raising its ugly head in Moses’ assistant and successor, Joshua.  Moses and seventy future helpers were called by the Lord God to the Tent of Meeting for the Spirit-giving ordination ceremony. But two of the invitees were absent, and Joshua could not tolerate these absent men prophesying in the camp without receiving God’s Spirit in the Tent of Meeting. Moses had to instruct Joshua to be tolerant.

In the Gospel, we find intolerance among the apostles of Christ. John complains to Jesus that a man outside their group of selected disciples has been exorcising demons in Jesus’ Name, in spite of their attempt to prevent him from doing so. How did Jesus respond? Like Moses in the first reading, Jesus challenges a rigid understanding of ministerial legitimacy. He wants the apostles to rejoice in the good that others are doing, for God is the Doer of all good.  Jesus enunciates a principle for his disciples: “Anyone who is not against us is for us.”  God can and does use anyone to do His work.

The invitation to proclaim the good news of salvation, in both word and work, is not restricted to the twelve apostles or seventy disciples but extended to anyone who will hear and respond to it “in Jesus’ name.” The Church has no monopoly on God’s work, truth, love or power to heal and reconcile. Wherever we see God’s work being done, we should give it our support and be ready to work together with those doing the work, whether they are Christians or not, believers or not.

Jesus’ second warning is against scandal-givers: Jesus uses shocking language in today’s Gospel. He suggests that we cut off our hand or our foot or pluck out our eye.

Of course, we know Jesus is not speaking literally. If we do literally, we have more sins than we have bodily parts.  Besides, even if all offending parts were removed, our hearts and minds — the source of all sins– would still be intact. Hence, these sayings are actually about our attitudes, dispositions, and inclinations.

The milder way of saying would be let go…

Jesus knows that at times there are things in our life that need to end. And even though it seems like we are cutting off a piece of ourselves, refusing to take that step would endanger something of even greater value.

We might love our work. We might thrill to the excitement of accomplishing things and finding success in our job. But if the energy and time that we put into our work begins to strangle our relationship with our spouse and our children, then we might need to change our job or at least the way that we do it. That possibility might seem like eliminating a very part of ourselves. Yet it would be better to do that than to continue to work full throttle and lose our family in the process.

There may be somebody in our life who consistently manipulates us and tears us down. It could be a relative, a friend, perhaps even a parent. If, after repeated attempts to correct that relationship, we realize that this person will never change, we might have to sever ties with the one who hurts us. Although that might seem like tearing out the fabric of our lives, it would be worse to find ourselves sinking into depression or losing our mental health.

We might recognize that we have an addiction to alcohol, to drugs, to excessive overeating. It might become clear that if we are to remain healthy we need to stop the addiction. To stop, however, might seem impossible, like cutting off our hand. Yet it would worse to let that addiction control us and possibly destroy us.

Jesus uses such strong language in today’s gospel because he knows that removing deadly things from our life is not easy. It is like losing a piece of ourselves. He also understands that taking such strong action is not possible by willpower alone. God’s grace is necessary. Let us pray for that grace…