God Boundless Gifts

Julián Carrón  - God distributes His gifts with a freedom that often displaces us. "The Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to Moses: He took away part of the spirit that was on him and placed it over the seventy elders." The Spirit, that is, the newness of life He had given to Moses, God wants to share with others —”the seventy elders."

How can everyone recognize to whom God wants to give the Spirit? By the fruits: "when the spirit had come upon them, they prophesied." The fact that they prophesied was the visible sign of God's action, who, by His Spirit, had rested on them. Those to whom the Lord decides to give His Spirit are recognized by the newness of life He brings.  

The prophet is one who proclaims with his life that God is acting in him, so much so that others learn that the two men, Eldad and Medad, who had remained in the camp, had also received the Spirit because they too "began to prophesy in the camp."

This way of God's actions often baffles us. In fact, the young Joshua, "a servant of Moses since his youth," does not understand how God can distribute His gifts so freely. He goes to Moses to ask him to prevent Eldad and Medad from bearing witness to what God had done in them, saying, "Moses, my lord, stop them!" Moses’ response unmasks the root of Joshua’s concern: "Are you jealous for me?" Instead of pandering to Joshua’s jealousy, Moses educates him to have the right attitude to understand, "Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would place His spirit on them!" Aware of the gift he and the seventy elders had received, Moses would like them all to share in his spirit, in the grace they had received, thus showing his passion for the people.

This mentality of Joshua is difficult to eradicate, as we also see in the Gospel. John, the beloved disciple, goes to Jesus and says to Him, "Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he does not follow us."  

The criterion John uses for his request to Jesus is that "he does not follow us," meaning he did not belong to their group. 

Like Moses, Jesus teaches His followers that the criterion for recognizing a gift in others is not membership in their circle but the deed they perform, the new life that shines in them—in this case, "casting out demons." Jesus said, "Do not stop him, for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me." And He invites His followers to learn from His perspective: "Whoever is not against us is for us." Jesus educates them to open their narrow vision and welcome any sign, no matter where it comes from, even down to the simplest gesture like giving a glass of water: "For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in my name because you belong to Christ, truly, I tell you, will not lose their reward."

The criterion for judging any deed is the objective good that another does. This is what bears witness to the truth.

These small episodes in today’s readings show that God’s action in history is broader than our sometimes limited schemes. Not only in the past but also in the present, as St. Augustine writes: "Just as in the Catholic Church there can be found what is not Catholic, so outside the Catholic Church there can be something Catholic" (Augustine, On Baptism against the Donatists: PL 43, VII, 39, 77). 

This recognition of God’s absolutely free action, beyond the boundaries of the Church, invites us not to be trapped by jealousy but to recognize the good wherever we find it, because it is the sign of God’s action. "Even within the Church itself," Benedict XVI said, "it can sometimes happen that we struggle to value and appreciate, in a spirit of deep communion, the good things accomplished by the various ecclesial realities. Instead, we must all and always be capable of appreciating one another, praising the Lord for the infinite 'imagination' with which He works in the Church and in the world."

Only by embracing this limitless imagination of God will we avoid scandalizing the little ones. "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea." 

Jesus does not hesitate to use such strong words because He is well aware of the harm done to the little ones who believe in Him when we fail to follow God's initiative. Therefore, anything that causes scandal (represented symbolically as the hand, the foot, the eye) must be cut off, "for it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God" with this newness that God brings into history, "rather than to be thrown into Gehenna, where the worm never dies and the fire is never quenched."

Let us ask for the simplicity that Moses and Jesus show us in recognizing God’s action in the world, wherever it manifests, and to show everyone that we harbor no jealousy except for following the path of God's imagination.

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