Wednesday, May 18, 2016 7th Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Jas 4: 1-17 Gospel: Mk 9:38–40
John said to him, “Master, we saw someone who drove out demons by calling upon your name, and we tried to forbid him because he does not belong to our group.” Jesus answered, “Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in my name can soon after speak evil of me. For whoever is not against us is for us.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life Experience)
The Jerome Biblical Commentary makes a parallelism between today’s Gospel story and the story of Moses and Joshua in the Old Testament. In today’s Gospel, John reported to Jesus that he had stopped a man from driving out demons because the man was not a member of their group. Jesus disapproved John. In the Old Testament Joshua had asked Moses to stop a certain Eldad and Medad from prophesying. Moses said: “Are you jealous on my account? If only the whole people of Yahweh were prophets…” (Num. 11:24-30). Moses’ answer was harsh probably because Eldad and Medad were legitimate prophets whose only problem was that they were not around when Yahweh came down in the Cloud taking some of the spirit that was in Moses to apportion them to the seventy elders (Numbers 11:25).
A similar episode is found in the Acts of the Apostles. Some itinerant Jewish exorcists who tried to cast out demons using the name of Jesus and of the Apostle Paul shouted one day to a possessed person: “I command you by the name of Jesus whose spokesman is Paul”. But the evil spirit replied: “Jesus I recognize, and I know who Paul is, but who are you?” (Acts 19:15). The man with the evil spirit attacked them so violently that these exorcists ran away naked and badly mauled (Acts 19:11-20). The exorcists were mimickers who envied Paul because “so remarkable were the miracles worked by God at Paul’s hands that handkerchiefs or aprons which had touched him were taken to the sick and they were cured and the evil spirits came out of them” (Acts 19:11).
Working in the vineyard may not need accreditation. But definitely it demands purity of intentions and uprightness of life in the Lord. In today’s Gospel reading we do not know if the person involved was a legitimate follower of Jesus. But when his activity of driving out evil spirits in the name of Jesus was brought to Jesus’ attention, Jesus appeared tolerant. He even chastised the disciples for being exclusivist. “Do not forbid him”, Jesus said, “For whoever is not against us is for us”.
Sincerity of intentions and uprightness of life in the Lord are our weapons against the devil and against jealous co-workers in the vineyard. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email:[email protected].
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