This week’s Gospel reading reminds us of how some people take scripture literally (sometimes it SHOULD be and sometimes NOT). Today’s passage illustrated the latter. For example, today Jesus says that if your hand or eye or foot are a source of sin for you—CUT THEM OFF. Boy, if understood this way, he was a stern taskmaster. He’d fit in with those countries today that do, in fact, punish lawbreakers in this fashion (countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, and several others.
Contrary to this MODERN practice (that goes back millennia), Jesus was NOT making this point. Otherwise, we’d have millions of disabled people coping with these amputations. Instead of thinking that this is the point of what Jesus said, forget it. Jesus is using hyperbole—exaggerating an example just to make his point. That is, he’s saying: “If you can identify the source of your bad behavior—STOP IT. Make no excuses and never say: “The devil made me do it.”).
This topic reminded me of an American Indian comedy video that had a young Indian guy sitting across from a medicine man at a table. The young man hands a gift to the medicine man [a traditional custom when seeking wise counsel from a traditionalist elder]. The young man then respectfully says: “I’ve been going to a lot of white doctors and they can’t tell me what’s going on with me. I ain’t got no singing voice and I’m always tired.” The medicine man then asks: “Well, do you party all the time?” And the young man smilingly responded: “Hell yes.” With that, the medicine man slaps the young man across the face and says; “Knock it off!”
Jesus and the medicine man are both basically saying that one should stop doing what they know to be destructive behavior.
Apart from this lesson in scripture this week, I was reminded of a term I heard bandied about by commentators on the upcoming elections. They were referring to people who cast their vote based on very little knowledge of the persons or issues. Or, they are victims of intentionally misleading or deceptive data called “disinformation” (as when the Russians or other countries fill our social media for unsuspecting Americans who think what they see is accurate or true—when it’s not). Whether one knows little about candidates or issues their mindset is: “I’ve always voted for whoever is a Green Party candidate” (or one of the other parties). Or these people might simply THINK they know issues (but when interviewed reveal a lack of knowledge—as has been found with people who limit themselves to FOX broadcasts (its viewers being the LEAST informed). People within these populations are referred to as “low information” voters (the technical term I recently learned).
Just this week, when the vice-presidential candidates debated, a poll showed that 25% of the population had no idea who the VP candidates were or what they stood for. If you fall within this group and wish to acquire a sense of candidates, I’d be happy to provide you with information on them. For example, VP candidate Vance thinks the U.S. should “delete” its form of government and replace it with a dictatorship. This is simply to point out that you should know one’s vision of America if it is contrary to yours.
Learning this term dovetailed with what Pope Francis recently said. He told people that they had a responsibility to educate themselves on all the candidates and issues and NOT limit themselves to voting for one issue only. The Pope was calling us to be a “high information” voter.
This topic brought to my mind that I’m “low information” in many areas of life. For example, I’ve known about the existence of soybeans for years, but it wasn’t until this week that I learned what they looked like. Parishioner Irene Peck brought some to the Tuesday 5 p.m. Mass for me to see. What also came to mind is that a priest’s role within a parish is to help the people become “high information” members of the faith community—and be people familiar with biblical literature, Christian history, ethics, traditions, spirituality, and all aspects of life as seen through the eyes of Jesus. That’s why a “homily” is supposed to teach people about scripture passages at Mass, and how those passages might apply to our everyday living.
This week we see the names of Moses and Joshua and their dealing with people who weren’t “official” prophets chosen by the community. We might be tempted to yawningly listen to this story from the Book of Numbers—andhave no clue as to its relevance for us. However, to be high-information Catholics, we need to know how these elements of the story DO relate to us.
In short, our Christian religion is based on the teachings and life of Jesus. He is called the “second Moses” because he led us out of slavery to behaviors that enslave us. Moses led his people to the Promised Land, and so does Jesus lead us in that direction. However, it was Joshua who accompanied the people across the river into the new territory (since Moses died just before getting there). And we need to keep in mind that Joshua and “Yeshua” (Hebrew) are the same name as “Jesus.”
So today, we are thus reading about our grandparents in the faith who were symbols or forecasts of what was later to come full fleshed out in the Gospels (a technical name for people who presage/illustrate a New Testament figure is “type” (as in “Moses is a ‘type’ for Jesus”). These leaders in the “Old Testament” became fleshed out in the totality of goodness when Jesus arrived on the scene in Bethlehem. Their lives and experiences pointed the way to Him.
Such as today’s reading had Moses comment: “Would that all the people of the LORD were prophets!” This, too, is a major statement to you and me. Why? Because when we were baptized, we were baptized to become a “prophet.” Not in the sense of predicting the future (the meaning we generally have in mind), but as one who speaks or shows others how God is present with us HERE AND NOW.
In this role, we’re likely to have a family member or friend or acquaintance say to our “prophetic voice” a response like: “Mind your own business,” or some such dismissive reply to what we say. We needn’t get on a soapbox, or “in someone’s face” when we live our prophet role. As with the prophets of the Old Testament, so with us prophets of the New Testament. You and I might be criticized or ignored or be martyred—but such is the role of prophets described in scripture. Our challenge is to somehow make our Gospel point in a way that people can “hear.”
Maybe when speaking with someone who we think needs our counsel, we can use a “hook” like the one used by Dr. Phil on TV. When his guest reveals all the problems they’ve had with drugs or behaviors that brought lots of anguish, Dr. Phil asks them: “How’s that working for you?” The reason this question is a therapeutically good question to ask—is that Dr. Phil is not himself outright telling the person that they’re really “messed up.” He’s led the person to be able to objectively look at their behavior and respond something to the effect of “It hasn’t been working out for me.” And so it is with our being a prophet. We need to learn HOW we might deliver the counsel we prophets seek to provide.
When the apostles told Jesus about other people doing good—but not doing it in the name of Jesus—they remind us of the first reading from Numbers. Jesus is acknowledging good behavior when it is performed when he says: “For whoever is not against us is for us.” Such people can be considered what’s been termed an “anonymous Christian.” They’re doing Christian behavior without consciously calling it Christian.