Billy Graham was a Southern Baptist Minister and prominent American Evangelist. He was a spiritual consultant to several presidents, and he preached the Gospel to more people in person than any person in the history of Christianity.
Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesman and leader in the American civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. King advanced civil rights through non violence and civil disobedience, inspired by his Christian beliefs. Then there was Dietrich Bonhoeffer a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, anti-Nazi dissident. His writings on Christianity's role in the secular world have become widely influential, and his book The Cost of Discipleship is a modern classic. He was hanged by the Nazis on April 9, 1945.
These are only three among many men and women, who throughout history have lent their voices and their lives to the service of the Gospel. These three, as well as countless others were not Catholic and yet their words touched and changed the hearts of many for the better. And while the Catholic Church is the church founded by Jesus Christ and offers the most important gift the Lord gave which is his body and blood in the Eucharist, repeatedly throughout history, His spirit has fallen on and continues to fall on others who do not necessarily believe in the Eucharist but still have participated in spreading the Gospel.
Today we are reminded of a couple of things. One is that we as Catholics don’t have a monopoly on being saved or bringing the words and love of Jesus to others. The second is that anyone who claims to be a disciple of Jesus is accountable by his/her words and actions in their witness to others.
In today’s lst reading, Moses has told the Lord that the burden for leading his people has become too great. So, the Lord selects 70 elders from the tribes to help in leading the people. When the day arrives for the Lord to pour out his spirit on those selected, two of them were not present but the Lord’s spirit falls on the two anyway. When this happens, others among the people complain that these two were not present but were prophesying none the less. Then Joshua goes to Moses and tells him to stop them. But then Moses questions them as to why they are jealous and says that he wished the Lord would pour out his spirit on all people.
Then in the Gospel we hear a similar story. John comes to Jesus and reports that he saw someone casting out demons in Jesus’ name and that they tried to stop him because this person was not one of Jesus’ followers. It seems that his disciples who previously were unable to cast out a demon themselves, were now jealous that an outsider was doing the work they were called to do. But Jesus says don’t stop him. If he is doing good, meaning he is doing the things Jesus would do, then he won’t be speaking against Jesus.
The first point of these two readings is that it is God who chooses, and it is God who calls. It’s not for us to say who is qualified or worthy to do the Lord’s work. Instead, we should be more worried about how well we ourselves are doing what the Lord has called us to do. And that leads us to the second point. We need to be looking within ourselves and outside of ourselves as to whether our thoughts, words, and actions are serving the Lord and bringing people closer to him or are we misleading or even driving people away from the Lord. And Jesus uses some strong language today in telling us that, we who say we are his disciples, we who are Christian are accountable for the souls of others. He says, “whoever causes one of these who believe in me to sin, it is better that a millstone be tied around his neck, and he be cast into the sea. Now just so you have an idea of the magnitude of what Jesus was saying, a millstone, from ancient times and on up through the middle-ages was used to grind grain. This was done by placing the grain on a flat disk made of stone and then another disc which had a hole in its center was turned on its side and with a wooden axle slid through the hole, the millstone was rolled over the grain to turn the grain into flour. These millstones were 4ft to 5ft in diameter and weighed upwards of a 1,000 lbs. So, Jesus in using this imagery was stating just how great the responsibility is to not lead people into sin. And given the actions of a number of people today in our country and in our church, I suspect there might be some righteous minded folks who would want to rush right out and buy stock in millstones.
But the thing we need to remember is that when Jesus said anything it was meant to be personal. It was a message for each person to reflect on how Jesus’ words relate to their own life experience and behavior. Whenever we read or hear the scriptures, we should first be thinking, “how am I living up to these words?”
When I was young, my father told me that whenever I left the house, I carried the name of Martin with me. And he impressed on me that my words and my actions reflected directly on him, my mother, and our whole family. And so, it is with us as Christians. The way we speak and act at home and out in the world will determine whether people have a positive accurate view of Jesus and the Church or are we giving them a negative, less than truthful image. And when we speak and act in a way that is contrary to the Gospel we profess to believe, we can break people’s spirits and drive them away from the Lord and closer to sin. And it’s interesting that in the original translation of this Gospel, the sin of leading others to sin is called scandal. It is considered a scandal to confuse the faithful. It is a sin in which not only the body of Christ is injured, but the credibility of the Gospel is brought into question.
Two examples come to mind from current events. One is the clergy abuse scandal by which victims within and outside the Church have suffered. The sinful and heinous actions of small percentage clergy have done grave harm to the body of Christ and driven people away from the faith. The second example is of Catholic and Christian political leaders and other prominent people who promote, support, and even mandate the killing of the most vulnerable among us; the born, the unborn, the elderly, and others while continuing to declare their devout faith. They have also promoted and legislated policies which attack Marriage and the Family while validating gender confusion and other sinful lifestyles. And the result of these actions by our civic and church leaders is that people have either become confused as to what a Catholic or Christian stands for or they have lost faith and trust in our government and in our Churches. So, knowing all of this, what should we be doing? Well, we need to be praying for those for whom the millstone is great and the danger to their souls is greater. But before we do that, we must first pray for ourselves.
We must pray that by what we say and do, we can live out the truth of the Gospel with courage and love. We must pray that by our words and actions we are not leading people to sin by confusing them as to what our faith teaches and by behavior which contradicts what Jesus requires of us has his disciples. Jesus uses very strong language to tell us that we should get rid of anything that leads us to sin or could cause another to sin. Now he didn’t really mean that we should pluck out our eyes or cut off our hands, but that we need to examine our behavior to see what we must change. Whether it is anger, resentment, failure to forgive, excessive desire for material things, lack of proper reverence for the Lord, or any other thing that causes us to sin, we must get rid of it. If anything in our behavior causes another to sin or to become confused about what Jesus said and did, then we need to get rid of it.
To do otherwise poses a danger to our souls and to the souls of those the Lord has called us to serve.
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