September 28 is National Good Neighbor Day, an opportunity for neighbors to get to know each other better. So, let’s try to do something good for our neighbor on Tuesday!
The word of God takes us back to the Hebrews in the wilderness after their liberation from their oppressors in Ancient Egypt. The Book of Numbers takes its title from the “numbering” or census of the Hebrews. A more accurate title might have been “Grumblings.” It is full of discontent.
Here Moses asks God to breathe his spirit upon the 70 people gathered. But God surprisingly breathes his spirit upon these 70 and also two others. Joshua complains to Moses: stop these two from speaking in God’s name. Moses simply answers: God breathes and works wherever God wants.
This challenges us to recognize the presence of God in the most unlikely places, the most questionable people, and the most dubious traditions.
The word also invites us to pray anew for the energies of the Spirit already in us by virtue of our baptism and our confirmation: wisdom to focus on what truly matters, our relationship with God and one another; understanding and knowledge, to enter deeply into the mysteries of God and the truths of our faith; counsel to make good moral decisions; fortitude or strength of character to stand up for what is right; piety, giving God our creaturely praise and worship; and finally fear of the Lord: the healthy concern never to lose our friendship with God.
The letter of James tells of people who become so absorbed in earthly things that they forget their ultimate purpose. James challenges us to spend our energies not on transitory treasures, but on lasting treasures like doing good for others.
In the Gospel, Jesus talks about “tough love.” One issue we should settle quickly: Jesus was not speaking of self-mutilation. His warning was a Semitic way of speaking graphically, vividly and exaggeratedly, to make his point: stop and focus on what truly matters in life.
In harsh words not to be understood literally, Jesus
dramatically tells us that discipleship means not letting anything – anything!
– derail our quest for God and the things of God; not allowing the pursuit of
wealth, security, or status to derail us from our true purpose in life: to be
in relationship with God and one another forever by living a God-centered,
other-centered life.
We might imagine Jesus saying: if your job leads you to compromise your ethics and integrity, quit. Better to work elsewhere than be thrown into “Gehenna." “Gehenna,” you may know, was a smoldering garbage dump outside Jerusalem which came to symbolize “eternal punishment.”
Yes, we must have the courage of faith to “let go” and remove from our lives whatever cuts us off from God and loved ones.
Throughout history, people have taught us about “seizing the day.” Someone notably wrote: “Years from now we will be more disappointed by the things we didn’t do than by the ones we did.”
A compelling message: don’t live a life of regrets. Do good now. One approach to this process is to quietly sit down and think about your obituary. Yes, what do you want to be remembered for?
Which reminds me: Rudyard Kipling, the 20th century British Nobel prize author and poet, subscribed to a newspaper which published by mistake an announcement of his death. So, Kipling wrote to the editor: “I’ve just read that I’m dead. Don’t forget to delete me from your list of subscribers.”
Yes, today we might ask the Spirit of God to re-energize us so that we will have our priorities straight, that we will not let anything derail us from our true purpose in life: to be in relationship with God forever, and that we will try, as best we can, to do good now.
