Seeds:

First Reading: Numbers 11:25-29

• Pause after the first sentence: “The Lord came down in the Cloud.” The Scriptures can pass over these events so quickly, but it’s worth pausing to pay attention to them. Over this last month we’ve reflected so often on the coming of the Lord.
• God is a God of surprises: Eldad and Medad exemplify that. God chose them to prophesy, even though they were not among the chosen few. Joshua, in many ways, represents us who can be annoyed or threatened by the unexpected, but Moses remains open to the work of God however it manifests. What lessons are in that for us today?

Psalm: Psalm 18(19):8,10,12-14

• The refrain in this responsorial psalm can appear jarring: “The precepts of the Lord gladden the heart”. We don’t often think of precepts or laws as something that ‘gladden’ us but restrain us, needfully of course and helpfully, but ‘gladness’ is rarely a concept that we would associate with them. What is this trying to teach us?

Second Reading: James 5:1-6

• As we explore below, James’ words can be applied wider than just to the financially rich in our terms; how might they apply in our own context?
• James is very aware of the passing nature of this world. We can very quickly become attached to material things or people – what dangers are there in that?

Gospel: Mark 9:38-43,45,47-48

• Jesus’ figurative language here can be difficult, but the deeper point is important: it’s about prioritising. In the modern world we often speak of ‘priorities’ plural, but that’s a nonsense really: priority means that which is more important than other things. It’s singular – the most important thing. For Jesus that is God; anything that hinders or hurts our relationship with God needs to be looked at.
• This can also fruitfully be linked back to the psalm today and its acknowledgement: “who can detect all his errors? From hidden faults acquit me.” Sometimes we are unaware of our own failings.
• A few practices that can help us in this are an examination of conscience and the examen prayer; these can help us to be more aware of where we have lost sight of our priority, of where some of our hidden faults hinder us, and allow us to course correct with the help of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Sapling:

Last week we reflected on James, and I’d like to continue that reflection today. The God who Speaks has a short Bible study course through The Letter of James, and what follows is adapted from what I wrote for that series. The letter of James isn’t long, I’d encourage you if you’re moved by its teachings to have a look at the whole letter with the help of our course.

Have a read through verses 1 to 6 of chapter 5, if you can, then read them out loud. Aren’t they striking?

James presents us with a stark warning to who he terms the “rich”. Are we to understand by this passage that it’s immoral to have wealth? Or is there any particular virtue in being poor? Should we all sell everything we own to be deliberately poor? Well that’s not the message here.

This passage is concerned with justice and the impartiality that has been a constant theme of this letter.

Read verses 4 to 6 closely, do you see the issues that James is raising?
– Defrauding people
– Self-indulgence
– Condemnation

James’ concern in the early parts of his letter is with the interior dispositions of the heart, which he continues to reflect on here. It’s been a theme for Jesus as well, if you remember the gospels passages from recent weeks. It’s not that external actions don’t matter, otherwise what James says doesn’t really make any sense, but that we can’t separate external actions from our internal thoughts and desires.

James had identified in the community that he was writing to, that the rich among them were living out of an attitude of self-reliance that had made them numb to the needs of their brothers and sisters. Worse, it had led them to feel comfortable mistreating the less fortunate in order that they might benefit.

We don’t need to be financially rich to fall into those traps. We can be self-indulgent, self-referential and judgemental of others. If we find ourselves in that position, we should hear James’ words to the rich ringing in our ears.

But this passage ends with one of my favourite little verses: “they offered you no resistance”

Notice how that little characterization of the righteous person slips in at the end; selfless, humble, the righteous person doesn’t strike back in anger.

That’s not to say that being passive in the face of injustice is a good thing, far from it. But resistance can take other forms, such as selflessness. We should avoid paying evil for evil.

It should also bring to mind one very pertinent example: Jesus himself.

Jesus offered no resistance, like a sheep being taken to slaughter. He willingly submitted himself to his passion, because through that he would save us all.

A few weeks ago we looked at carrying our cross after Jesus; James here shows us another way to live that out, with God’s help.

Fruit:

• A good examination of conscience, which can be found in most prayer books
• Timothy Gallagher, the Examen Prayer or Mark Thibodeaux, Reimagining the Ignatian Examen
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1422-1498, on the Sacrament of Reconciliation

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