Pastor's Corner: Who is part of the group and who is not?

In my Roman Catholic tradition, this weekend's readings for Sunday come from the book of Numbers 11:25-29, also from the letter of James 5:1-6 and from the Gospel of Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48.

In the reading from Numbers, Moses speaks to God saying that he needs help to minister to the people. God tells Moses to develop a list of 70 elders upon whom he will place a portion of His spirit on. After the Spirit of God had been given, Joshua has a problem because two of the elders who are on the list to receive the Spirit of God had not strictly followed the orders given by Moses and stayed in the camp, yet they received the Spirit of God and began to prophesy. They were in fact doing God's will but had not followed the rules as Joshua understood them, therefore in Joshua's eyes Eldad and Medad (the two elders) were not worthy to do God's will. Moses corrected Joshua and said he wished all people would do God's will and prophesy.

In the reading from the Gospel of Mark, the disciple John informs Jesus that there was someone driving out demons in Jesus' name even though they were not followers of Jesus, and that Jesus should stop them from doing this. Jesus then informs John that he will not stop them because, in fact, this person is for Jesus and his mission and is doing God's will. But that is not the end of the story.

Jesus then goes on to tell the disciples that anyone who causes one of these "little ones" to sin, it would be better for that individual to put a millstone around their neck and be thrown into the sea. Sounds kind of harsh to me. Who in the heck are the "little ones?" To me, the "little ones" have always been children, those who might be easily taken advantage of or formed in a life of sin. I think I may have been wrong. (Writing that was a little painful.)

I believe "little ones" may refer to anyone who is choosing to do God's will and is producing good fruit for the Kingdom of God - even though they may not belong to the "chosen" group or follow all the rules of the "chosen" group. What is the fruit of the Kingdom of God? The same as the Fruits of the Holy Spirit; Love, Joy, Peace, Kindness, Patience, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-control. According to Jesus anyone who is producing this kind of fruit in their lives is for Jesus even if they are not part of the "chosen" group. In the reading from Numbers Moses says about the same thing.

When I was growing up in Maynard, Minnesota, I was in the heart of the Lutheran Holy Land. My family and one other family in Maynard were the only Catholic people in town. On top of that I was Irish in a sea of Norwegians and Swedes. At that particular time in history (ancient history?) as a Catholic I was not supposed to interact with Protestants because they were not part of the "group," and the Protestants were darn sure I was not part of their "group." I remember a great amount of tension when both of my older siblings fell in love with and married individuals from the "other group." In fact, I heard my mom say my siblings were probably going to hell for marrying outside the church. That is no small fear for a parent. My mom's fear had no scriptural or theological foundation - my brother and my sister were and are people who practiced their faith religiously and have produced much good fruit.

Over the years, I have come to realize that God loves great diversity. If you doubt this, please just take a look around you and remember that everything you see is created by the hand of God. In the same way there is great diversity in nature there is great diversity in religion. It is important to remember that humanity has great need for religion and God does not. In fact, I believe that humans cannot grow in faith and relationship with God without religion - we can believe in God without religion but we cannot grow in that relationship without religion.

I am sure that all who read this article will not be of the Catholic "group," but I do believe that all of you are chosen. The very fact that God chose to become human and chose to go through His passion, death and resurrection for all of humanity tells me that all humanity is chosen by God. The question is do we return the favor and choose to grow in our relationship with God by actively practicing in a religion so that we might bear good fruit.

My friends, my point is this, the Kingdom of Heaven was established on earth, here among us the moment Mary conceived Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. The only way we cannot experience and live in that Kingdom is by choosing to be like Joshua and John and act the way they did in the above-mentioned scripture - choosing to exclude and demean others because they don't belong to our group. When we do that we will begin to experience hell.

God being who He is offers us mercy when we fail. In addition to that great gift of mercy, by becoming human in the person of Jesus, God has shown us how to live so that each of us might become a great leader like Joshua and a beloved disciple like John and so work through us to bring salvation to all His people.

Have a blessed fall and please be considerate of the health and wellbeing of the people around you.

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Deacon Tim Maroney

St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church.