Num. 11:25-29; Ps. 19:8, 10, 12-14; James 5:1-6; Mk. 9:38-43, 45, 47-48
In the one spirit, “For whoever is not against us is for us.” “Would that the Lord would bestow his spirit on them all!” without licentiousness or duplicity. The Lord has come to bestow his spirit on all who receive through baptism the gift of the Holy Spirit. We are all called to prophesy to our faith as priest, prophet and king in baptism. While the Christian church in the world has divided into many denominations, they hold onto the one sacrament of faith that is baptism that bestows on all from the same spirit. Meanwhile the Catholic Church holds true to the seven sacraments of life that are the fullness of truth in Jesus Christ.
In the seven sacraments the church recognizes the significance that the body and soul must both live in the spirit as one, there cannot be any duplicity that satisfies the flesh without the spirit to guide it to holiness. Therefore, for each aspect of the flesh there is a sacrament to raise the flesh into holiness. In the flesh we are born, but in the spirit, we are reborn through baptism. In the flesh we require food to live and oh are we so ready to feed our bodies. In the spirit, we feed on the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist to be transformed in the spirit. In the flesh we grow in maturity and gain our knowledge. In the spirit, we grow in wisdom to be in covenant with God through Confirmation. Together the sacraments of Baptism, Communion, and Confirmation represent our full initiation into the Church, that is into the body of Christ in the one spirit.
In the flesh we heal the wounds of the body from the physical injury from play or from trauma. While in the spirit we heal from our sinful wounds from our pride and passions that injure the image of God in our creation. Thus, with an act of humility we seek reconciliation in the sacrament of Confession. In the flesh we seek immunity from bacteria, viruses, and the environment that causes us illness and disease. While in the spirit, we reject the attack from the evil one who desires our death with the healing power coming from the Anointing of the sick. Together they represent our victory over death and our readiness to “possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” in the one spirit.
In the flesh we procreate to continue life in the world by living in the natural law of God’s creation. In the spirit, we create the bond of unity in marriage to build up the kingdom of God. In the flesh we live an orderly life to be united in harmony with each other with laws to support the common good. In the spirit, we are given God’s law through the magisterium of the Church to create order in our faith practices through the sacrament of Holy Orders. Thus, we raise up the flesh to live beyond our passions and enter into the spiritual life with Christ through the sacramental life of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
In this we recognize that in God’s creation we join the life of the flesh with the life of the spirit of God to be in unity through God’s sacramental church. This unity is to extend into daily living, our home, work, business actions, and our relationships not only with friends and family but also with the stranger. Thus, today St. James is addressing the “rich” who hire “workers” and “withheld their wages” while storing up “treasures” for themselves. The “cries” of these workers have reached the “ears of the Lord of hosts”. St. James’ theology is simply a unifying principle between our faith and our actions, doing the right thing both in our private and public life.
St. James’ message to us is that our private life of faith must mirror our public life in the world. In other words, “Church and State” cannot be a life of duplicity where we claim to be Catholic or Christian but our private beliefs are separated from our call to work, our business actions, or our politics. In fact, St. James warns “you have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter. You have condemned; you have murdered the righteous one, he offers you no resistance.” St. James is reminding his listeners what was done to Jesus by their duplicitous interests claiming to be sons of God while protecting their public interests.
James takes us on this train of thought we can apply to our world from worker’s rights beginning with wages, to those condemned to the death penalty, to the innocent murder of the “righteous one” who offer “no resistance”. There is no one more righteous to life this day than the unborn killed in abortions by the thousands each year “fattening” the wallets of the abortion industry and of those whose politics defend it.
Duplicity is the world’s remedy for believers within the “church” creating a separation of church and state but for the “Lord of hosts” it is the formula that “will devour your flesh like fire”. Duplicity is trying to live a double life, one for God and one for the world and have “tried to store up treasure for the last days” only to see this wealth “rotted away”. In duplicity there cannot be one reality but the creation of two false illusions that of serving two Gods. Will either of them at the end claim the duplicitous servant as their own or will he be rejected as a child of neither one with a “millstone…around his neck”. Jesus warns us that this is the day and the time to correct our sinful acts than to go into Gehenna.
Gehenna literally translates from Hebrew to “valley of hell”. It was a place near Jerusalem where children were sacrificed to the god Baal. Child sacrifice goes back in scripture to Abraham and his son Isaac where God prevented his sacrifice. The “massacre of innocents” by King Herod orders the execution of all male children two years old and under near Bethlehem who the Church recognizes as the first Christian martyrs on Holy Innocents Day. When Mary appears to Juan Diego, Aztecs were having human sacrifices to the gods as a normal part of the culture. This week the Archbishop of San Francisco, Salvatore J. Cordielone published on his website (sfarchdiocesse.org) that abortion is “nothing short of child sacrifice” and he quoted Pope Francis who said, “Abortion is more than a problem. Abortion is homicide…It is a human life, period.” This is our Gehenna and we cannot be silent. In the past it was the “C” word of cancer that was not spoken because it represented death. Today it is the “A” word of abortion that represents death and without fear we must be willing to face it with an honest discussion.
It is by our “hand” that we sin when we raise it up to strike and condemn another including the hands that are raised to vote for death and end life. It is by the “feet” that we set the path we walk that takes us to live out a duplicitous life in the kingdom of the world. It is by our “eye” that we look upon evil and allow it to enter our soul to capture our passions. It is by the love and mercy of Jesus that we can separate ourselves from our sins leaving behind our past sins to enter into the kingdom of God. It is by the sacramental life of the Church that Jesus offers us a path to return to righteousness. Let our hands raise up in praise of God, let our feet follow the path coming from the word of God and let our eyes behold Jesus on the cross for our sins, in the eucharist to be healed in our souls, and through the sacramental life in his body the Church for our salvation.
If God is with us who can be against us? We can only be against ourselves if we compromise our faith for the works of the world. In counseling it is a principle of change that if we are to change a behavior that harms us, we cannot simply let go without having a positive behavior to replace it. The behavior we are letting go creates a vacuum that will be filled with something else that could be worse than the first. Scripture reminds us we can be freed from a demon but without change a greater legion of demons can enter us. We need to prepare ourselves to allow something of greater good to come into our lives or we will either return to the past or find something else just as harmful.
It happens every day when someone decides they are going to give up a habit. You give up smoking but you start to eat more and gain weight. You give up “hard” drugs but increase alcohol that is the slow killer. You go on a “killer” diet, hint, hint “killer” only to rebound and gain more weight as soon as you stop the diet. Wellness is finding the good lifestyle habits that replace the harmful ones. Spiritual wellness is increasing our spiritual muscle with lifestyle habits that put an end to the sinful ones. Prayer, fasting, meditating on the word of God, coming to receive Communion as often as we can, and spending time in adoration are all spiritual exercises that work as an anti-death lifestyle against sin and a pro-life lifestyle from God.
Returning to the Lord’s call to receive a share in the spirit of truth. The Lord comes down in the cloud and bestows some of the same spirit of Moses on seventy plus two. Moses is the head of the Israelites yet the spirit is given to many others to share in the leadership of the people. It is in this spirit that the church calls others into the clerical ministry to be deacons, priests and bishops with the Pope as the Vicar of Christ to head his church. It creates the order of the church but even when not present the spirit is free to call others to give testimony to the truth as God wills.
Thus, even in our separated brothers and sisters there is a spirit of truth “for whoever is not against us is for us.” Yet the church holds that the fullness of truth comes from Jesus given to the first disciples who have by succession established a line of leadership we call the Catholic church. That gift of the spirit which we are all baptized spreads the many gifts of the Holy Spirit but the same spirit. We each have a calling to live the truth of the gospel, without duplicity and without jealousy of the gifts of the spirit given to each. Let us ask and seek the gifts of the spirit to receive the fullness of truth. Let us let go of our sins and live in the one spirit without licentiousness or duplicity. Let us enter into the fullness of the gospel truth given to us by the most righteous one himself, Jesus Christ.
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