As we continue our reading of the Epistle of Saint James, we are presented with an attitude that the Lord considers repugnant, because it assumes an attribute that he alone, as God, is truly able to possess—the foretelling of our future.
It is almost as if James is sick and tired of the arrogance of such an attitude when he says; “Here is the answer for those of you who talk like this: ‘Today or tomorrow, we are off to this or that town; we are going to spend a year there, trading, and make some money’” James 4:13.
A comedian once remarked that “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your future plans.” And how often have we made our future plans with the best of intentions and even for what was seemingly the right reasons, and somehow it never came to pass—at least not in the way we imagined?
Just prior to today’s passage, James spoke to the recipient of his Epistle about the importance of remaining humble before God: “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you” James 4:10.
For James, one of the greatest countersigns to this humility is the arrogance of making future plans without considering both what God thinks of it, or better yet, if it is his will. Another aspect of what he is bemoaning here is the mundane character of our desires and our plans, so very often devoid of God. It is a denial of the existence, or at best, a reckless forgetfulness of our eternal soul.
Instead of the “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12) attitude taught by Paul, people are more inclined to embrace the faithless self-speak of the rich fool described by Jesus in one of his parables who thought his life was going to be a long one, without considering his immortal well-being. This is the parable in all its “rich” detail:
“The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God” Luke 17-21.
As we know, Luke’s gospel is one which emphasises mercy. In his selfishness, the rich fool described by Jesus, in his presumptuousness, forgot to be rich towards God, meaning… to think of the poor. He made all his future plans, not knowing that in that very night he would be appearing before God to settle accounts with him.
We too need to keep in mind that we too will need to settle accounts. How important it is that we move away from an individualistic, self-centred and selfish lifestyle, to one which extends its gaze outward, to the “other” who is calling out for help.
Today’s gospel reading is taken from Mark, who we know in turn, had become a scribe for Peter. Peter and the Apostles all had to learn to extend their gaze outward and realise that their lives were not so much about themselves, as much as they were about others.
Peter and the gang felt privileged, and they were, let’s not kid ourselves. They were twelve men from the billions of possibilities out there, that Jesus chose to be his close confidants and pupils. They would be given insights that others were not privy to, but it was always for the service and the building up of the Kingdom of God. In today’s gospel, they see someone casting out demons in Jesus’ name, but who doesn’t belong to their group. Jesus tells them to let it be so, because whoever is not against him, is for him.
Now, God builds his Kingdom much like the owner of land builds a house on it. He takes into account what others, outside his own family, can bring to the table. In fact, most of the time, the experts are those outside of his immediate acquaintances. They too, have something indispensable to offer. So too, in the building of his Kingdom, God will utilize the good will of all those who are truly seeking Jesus and sharing his goodness, but he also has a way of making evil at the end bend to his commands.
When we speak of the Kingdom of God, sometimes, unbeknownst to them, rulers, authorities, even those who were explicitly anti-God and calling themselves gods on earth, were utilized by the True God to fulfill his plan. Take Caeser Augustus for example and the census he called which would impel Saint Joseph to make his journey to Bethlehem with our Blessed Mother. God made use of the action and decision of a non-believer, a pagan ruler, to have his plan come together. If this is the case, how much more a person who spreads the good news concerning Jesus? Now, this can be a bit tricky. The man in the gospel, was not preaching doctrine but casting out demons in the name of Jesus. Doctrine is precise. It needs to be sound. There’s so many crazy ideas out there, and even detrimental theologies that run counter to the deposit of faith that Christ has entrusted to the care of the proper Ecclesial Authority. We need to be careful we do not conflate today’s gospel with the idea that therefore everything and anything is good to go in God’s sight. We also have to be careful however, that we do not confine the eternal and infinite God to a box of our limitations. This is what many other faiths do, and so they failed to embrace the divinity of Christ, given his humility and suffering.
When someone extols, promotes, glorifies, loves and reverences the name of Jesus, we should be overjoyed. They might not yet have the grace of pertaining to the fullness of the truth safeguarded by the Church, but we can at least rejoice in the truth they do already possess when it comes to our Lord, and if they are able to cast out demons by invoking his name, so much the better! Of course, our approved, priest-exorcists are generally the go-to for even secular and non-Catholic people seeking assistance with possession, but we should not rule out the possibility of those who in good faith, believing in our Lord, accomplish a liberation as well. We need to remember the maliciousness of what they are being used by God to overcome. We need to remember the horrors of the devil.
Our Lord was allowing it to also help us realise that it is about him, Jesus, at the end of the day. He’s the healer. He’s the exorcist, par excellence. He is the one who alone can do all these things, and it is always for our good. When Jesus said, “without me you can do nothing,” he wasn’t being full of himself. He was stating the facts and the truth so that we would know that he who alone can give us true life, is inviting us to remain connected to him. He made these declarations not out of pompous pride, but out of humble charity. It is always because he loves us that he allows other elements to contribute to the building up of his Mystical Body, the Church. May Jesus Christ be praised, now and always, by all nations and all tongues, for he is the King of the Universe and holds all things in his dominion. Amen.
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