Monday of the
Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary time
(Zechariah 8:1-4; Luke
9:46-50)
Once Pope Francis scandalized some Catholics. When he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge
Bergoglio, the future pope, prayed with evangelical Protestants. He even knelt down for their blessing.
“How could he do that?” the people asked. “Does he not know that past popes have
condemned any kind of collaboration with Protestants?” These people sound like John in today’s
gospel.
When John saw a man casting out demons in Jesus’ name, he
and the other disciples tried to stop him. Perhaps he was only concerned that the man did
not have Jesus’ permission to use his name.
It has been suggested, however, that John may have been envious because
the disciple’s sometimes have trouble casting out demons themselves. In any case Jesus corrects him. It does not matter to Jesus that someone uses
his name to do something good. What is
important is that everyone helps the poor and troubled live with dignity.
We might want to ask Jesus if it is necessary tan to be
his disciple. In other words, why are we
Catholics? Is it just because we have
been brought up in the Catholic Church or that now most of our friends are
Catholic? These are insufficient
motives. No, we are Catholic because we
hear Jesus’ words at mass at least every Sunday. More importantly, we are Catholic because we
are offered his body and blood at mass.
This is no mean gift, of course. It
might be compared to the love and the truth that the Church community has demonstrated
for two thousand years!
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