26^th.Sunday of the Year - B

Numbers 11: 25-29; Psalm 18; James 5: 1-6; John 9: 38-43, 45,47-48

Read: 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”.

Reflect: The Christian sometimes thinks that he is the only one walking the road shown him by Christ and this worries him; but if he were to raise his eyes, and to look around himself, he will realise that there are other generous and sincere persons walking the same road. He will be amazed and will ask himself how it is that he did not notice them earlier. It is possible that he did not notice them before because he had his eyes covered with the thick veil of being presumptuous and thinking that he was the one and only disciple.

Jealousy did not permit him to recognise the good being done by others different to him. In the Gospel we see that the apostles were proud that they belonged to a particular group. They told Jesus: “we tried to stop him because he was not one of us”. This sort of aloofness led them to believe that that those who were not of the same thinking as theirs, were Christ’s enemies. Being presumptuous because one appertains to a particular group is dangerous, because the members of such a group start thinking that only they have a saintly fervour … a fervour that, in reality, is hiding egoism, and a lack of ability to accept that good exists also outside the religious structure to which they belong. Jesus teaches us that we should take pleasure in witnessing good by whosoever this is done.

Pray: Lord help me to overcome all prejudices, exclusivity, religious exclusion. You love all of us Lord, and on every human being you shower shreds of your goodness.

Act: Stop pretending that you are unique, that only you do good, and that to be saved one needs to belong to your grouping. Do not continue thinking that all the truth is to be found in your hands!