The Grace Of God Cannot Be Contained
(By Fr. Dexter Brereton)
. . unlike worldly commodities, GRACE is not scarce. It cannot be trade-marked and patented as if it were the private property of someone or some group.
Liancourt is a small town about two miles from Pont Sonde in the central Department of the Artibonite in Haiti. In the summer of 2001, I went there to purchase bottled water for the presbytery, since the only source of potable water in those days was what Haitians called ‘dlo Culligan’ (Culligan water – flown in from the U.S.). On this particular day, I was buying water from one of the many little roadside stalls and spotted another stall some yards away selling a kind of sweet which my parents when they were children called ‘Kaiser balls’ a larger version of a candy now known as ‘paradise plum.’ Well, my mouth watered and stepping away from my transaction I went to the neighbouring stall to purchase a few candies. The vendor looked hard at me and said to my face, ‘Next time, I won’t sell you any, we sell water too!’ She took objection to the fact that while I was willing to purchase candies from her, I was buying water from her neighbor, her business competitor.
Jesus in today’s Gospel warns us against this kind of ‘hyper-competitiveness’ that is so much a feature of the contemporary world. John tells Jesus that they tried to stop a man who was casting out devils in his’ name…without being officially sanctioned by Jesus. Put in modern terms, he did not have a legal franchise! Jesus’ response must have surprised him. He said ‘You must not stop him: no one who works a miracle in my name is likely to speak evil of me. Anyone who is not against us if for us. In other words, unlike worldly commodities, GRACE is not scarce. It cannot be trade-marked and patented as if it were the private property of someone or some group. This is also the lesson in today’s first reading which is taken from the Book of Numbers where two men, Eldad and Medad begin prophesying in the Israelite camp, without having been part of the official body of elders. The work of the Spirit of God must be respected in whomsoever and wherever it is found.
This lesson comes to us at an opportune time. This past week much of the Western world was transfixed by the process of electing a new judge to sit on the United States Supreme Court. What unfolded on television was a horrendous spectacle. There were charges of sexual assault, political revenge and victimization being hurled about. As one journalist noted: the accuser cried before the committee and the accused cried even more. This is a sad symbol of a great democracy brought to its knees and rent asunder by the hyper-competitive, hyper-partisan nature of modern politics. In this poisoned atmosphere, it has become almost impossible to make generous assessments of our political opponents and to see them not as demons but as people who love their country even though they do not love it as we do. It becomes much more difficult for either side to make concessions in view of the Common Good.
The Christian world too has known the sad results of this kind of factionalism and hyper-competitiveness. The Ecumenical movement (from the Greek word Oikumene meaning “the whole inhabited world”) – that is, the movement towards unity and peace among Christian Churches notes that the work of Christ in this world has been impeded by the scandal of division among those who claim to be his followers. It is always sad when Christian denominations ill-speak or ‘bad-mouth’ each other. Many of us Catholics can remember being offended by some Evangelical who referred to the church as ‘whore of Babylon’. I am also sure that many an Evangelical can remember their church being dismissively referred to as a ‘small church.’ Perhaps we can begin to change things by bowing down before Christ present in those around us, respecting and honouring the action of the Holy Spirit wherever we find it. Let us give ourselves permission from time to time to be generous in our opinion of those who do not share our opinion and to refrain from ill-speaking them. Amen.
