Today people seem to like to choose a side and exclude and even refuse to listen to those with whom they disagree. They watch only the news channels that agree with their position and refuse to listen to anyone else they think might be against them. Such people sound like John in today’s Gospel: “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.” Jesus calls for a much more open response: “Do not prevent him…For whoever is not against us is for us.”
Through our baptism you and I are called to be ministers of reconciliation, we are called to step in the breach and help opposite sides to listen to one another. We are called to follow the example of Jesus and strive to include not to exclude. Instead of asking “whose side are you on,” we should presume good will on the part of the other. We have all been created in God’s image and likeness and as Christians we are challenged to recognize the human dignity of all people whether they “follow us” or not.
Some of those who take sides and refuse to listen to any other opinion do so out of a false arrogance or boasting, claiming they alone know the truth. In our first reading James warns us against such an attitude and such a false sense of self-sufficiency:
“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we shall go into such and such a town, spend a year there doing business, and make a profit’–you have no idea what your life will be like tomorrow. You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears.”
James teaches that we are not self-sufficient but always dependent on God:
“Instead, you should say, ‘If the Lord wills it, we shall live to do this or that.’ But now you are boasting in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.”
Jesus teaches and shows us that the right question is not: “whose side are you on” but what is God’s will. Today let us make Jesus’ words our own: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” (Luke 23:46). “Abba, Father, all things are possible to you…but not what I will but what you will.” (Mark 14:36)
Image: “Jesus Christ teaching on mountain” by Sealino is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.