Would that all the Lord’s people were Prophets!
- Fr. Raphael Ma, CR
- Numbers 11: 25 - 29
A Resurrectionist Vocation Minute for September 29, 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Would that all the Lords’ people were Prophets!
In both our first reading and our Gospel this Sunday, we have two parallel situations. In the first reading, Joshua speaks up about the two elders who remained in the camp – instead of going with Moses and the other elders – and yet prophesied when the Spirit rested upon the elders. Similarly, in the Gospel, John the apostle speaks up about someone who was not going with Jesus and the other disciples, but was nevertheless casting out demons in Jesus’ name.
Their reactions are understandable. We don’t have to read pride or some other character fault into the text – theirs may have been a real concern: they believed God was with their leader, they were trying to follow their leader, and so everyone else should be following their leader in the exact same way.
But both Moses’ and Jesus’ responses show that for them, what is more important is what the Holy Spirit wants to accomplish – rather than who is following who or how exactly it is being done. For Moses and Jesus, not only are they not threatened by the others, they would like to see more people to be doing these things that are the result of the Spirit of God.
How open am I to being surprised by the ways in which the Holy Spirt is at work in my life?
“We strive for that perfect obedience in which we seek to do God's will in everything. As our faith grows we will come to recognize that the Holy Spirit speaks to us in many different ways: Sacred Scripture, the Magisterium, the prescriptions of our Constitutions and Statutes, ecclesiastical and religious superiors, personal inspirations, the consensus we arrive at when we collectively seek God's will through dialogue and house meetings, the demands of common life and the apostolate, and the events of daily life.”