Is there a lesson hidden in the readings today? In our Gospel, we hear about John coming up to Jesus and saying to him, “Lord, we found somebody using your name, the name of the Messiah, to cast out demons, and we told him not to do it. You must tell him not to do it.”
Well, you can understand John, because they’d just heard that Jesus was the Messiah. And that means that John and the rest are on the side of the angels, they’re on the side of God, They’re going to be better than everybody else. And the difficulties that obsess them about being a weak, puny little nation is no longer going to be true, they’re going to drive those Romans out of there and everybody will know that God is the mighty powerful God.
Jesus has no time for this sort of thinking.
Because Jesus didn’t come just to save John and a few fellows walking around in Palestine. Jesus came to reveal the love of God for all of God’s creation.Jesus came to reveal that we all have a special relationship with God. A loving relationship with God. And because we are created in God’s image and likeness, we are called into a loving relationship with each other.
Jesus’ lesson to John in the Gospel is that you don’t reveal the love of God by creating yet another group of people that are going to be intolerant of everybody else, or, put more bluntly,
Never try to stop the works of God that happen around you because they don’t fit the way you think that they should happen!
And that message brings us to an even more powerful insight, an insight that often slips by, unnoticed, in the background. Because, this month, there actually has been something playing out in the background of our Masses. It was hidden in the Second Readings, where throughout the course of this month we have heard parts of the Letter of James to the early Christian Community. You may not have noticed. Because it was, well, in the background.
I really like James. Such a practical guy. Since it was ‘in the background’ so to speak, let me recap the readings
- On the first Sunday this month, James said that our call and mission was to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep ourselves unstained by the world.
- On the second Sunday he tells us that class distinction and judging others by their appearances has no place in our lives,
- On the third Sunday, he told us that faith without good works is dead.
- Last week he told us following the world’s teachings will bring us jealousy, unbridled ambition, and self-centredness, whereas following the wisdom from above helps make us peaceable, gentle, and full of mercy
- Finally, this week he reinforces these messages in no uncertain terms when he speaks of condemnation of those who grow rich by exploiting the weak.
It’s a really short, but incredibly powerful letter ….. And it is one that I would most strongly suggest you take time to read over in its entirety.
So, what is that hidden deeper insight? It is that we are called to be aware of when we have, as James would say, become “stained by the world”. In the same way that the apostle John in today’s Gospel let his world stain how he interpreted the way that God wanted to reveal God’s love,We too can have our perspectives of God, and others, and life, stained.
We experience today a world that can so often seem cruel. Uncaring. Uncivil. To use James’ words, a world filled with Jealousy, Ambition, Self-centredness. A “Look after number one – what’s in it for me” kind of place. And it is all too easy when immersed in that world to start to think and act that way. To become a little less caring. A little less civil. A little less giving of self to others and a little more self-centred.To become a little too quick to judge others. To become a little to quick to take advantage of others.To become a little too quick to talk. And a little too slow to listen. And perhaps too quick to try to stop the works of God that happen around us because they don’t fit the way we think that they should happen!
That deeper insight is that we need to become aware of when we see life through all too human eyes, stained by our life experience,
Because that awareness is the first step into entering a deeper and more transformational relationship with God. Because that awareness is the first step into entering a deeper and more transformational relationship with others. Because that awareness is the first step into entering a deeper and more transformational relationship with God’s creation
And what a powerful insight that is.