Do You Belong To Christ 你屬於基督嗎？

Twenty-Sixth Ordinary Sunday, Year B
Theme: Do You Belong To Christ 你屬於基督嗎？

In historical legends, whether Chinese or Biblical, we hear of heroes who fell in the end because they took everything on their shoulders and failed to delegate. As the liberator of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, Moses made the same mistake before they reached Mount Sinai. Moses’ father-in-law, the Midian priest Jethro, came to congratulate him for his success in liberating the Hebrew slaves from Egypt but saw something wrong with the administrative skills of his son-in-law. “The next day Moses sat in judgment for the people, while they stood around him from morning until evening” (Numbers 18:13). Jethro asked him what was going on and Moses replied, “The people come to me to consult God. Whenever they have a disagreement, they come to me to have me settle the matter between them and make known to them God’s statues and instructions” (18:15b-16). Moses’ action was both commendable and legitimate. But Jethro was quick to point out his flaw. “What you are doing is not wise. You will surely wear yourself out, both you and these people with you. The task is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone” (18:17-18). Moses was dealing with six hundred thousand people single-handedly! He was not any five-star General of the Army, nor the six hundred thousand Israelites he was leading disciplined soldiers. The Hebrew slaves had been grumbling and complaining all along that the journey was too hazardous, there was no water, no food and that they preferred returning and dying in Egypt etc. Jethro was perfectly correct in his assessment of the situation. It was unwise for Moses to shoulder everything on his shoulders alone because of his zeal for teaching the Israelites God’s statues and instructions. No matter how commendable his zeal was, it didn’t do anybody good! “You will surely wear yourself out, both you and these people with you” is a motto which every leader, even political leaders, should remember!

Luckily Moses accepted Jethro’s proposal. Otherwise, the Exodus to the Promised Land would have collapsed even before it began. The Israelites had not yet established the Sinai Covenant and received the Ten Commandments, not to mention heading towards the Promised Land. Jethro was truly a seasoned priest. He was able to retain what Moses had all along been doing, probably wishing to save Moses of his face. “Act as the people’s representative before God, and bring their disputes to God. Enlighten them in regard to the statutes and instructions, showing them how they are to conduct themselves and what they are to do” (18:20). His trick was to shift Moses’ focus a little bit in order to obtain the most optimal results. “But you should also look among all the people for able and God-fearing men, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain, and set them over the people as commanders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens. Let these render decisions for the people in all routine cases. Every important case they should refer to you, but every lesser case they can settle themselves. Lighten your burden by letting them bear it with you” (18:21-22). His prudence was truly admirable. Notice that Jethro even did have not to outline which cases were routine and lesser and which cases were important! The commanders would know! Simply put. Cases that commanders of tens failed to pacify the people must be “important” enough to pass up to commanders of fifties and so on! After four levels of commanders all failed to pacify the people, such cases must be seriously important. Such a filtering system must have been capable of removing many trivial cases. Prove me wrong! Leaders! You are no God. Delegate or you will be deleted!

With this background knowledge, we may understand better what Moses meant in the first reading today. Once more, definitely in a latter occasion, the commanders mentioned above were unable to share Moses’ burden adequately enough. This time, God intervened. He instructed Moses to choose 70 elders to help governing the people. Then God gave them the Holy Spirit to discharge their duties. For some unknown reasons, two of the chosen elders, Eldad and Kedad, did not show up in the tent but God still gave them the Holy Spirit. The two elders were able to prophesize like the other 68 (Numbers 11:26). Joshua was loyal to Moses and requested Moses to stop them. But Moses says, “Are you jealous for my sake? If only all the people of the LORD were prophets! If only the LORD would bestow His spirit on them!” (11:29) If all the people of the LORD had been prophets, Moses would have been relieved from the burden of deciding hundreds of thousands of disputes each day and the people would not have been waiting in a long queue from morning till evening to have their cases heard.

Take a step back and smell. Something must have been wrong in the commander filtering system described above so that God had to intervene and replaced it with the elder system. What could have gone wrong? I speculate that no institutional structure is able to control human weaknesses such as favouritism. Didn’t Isaac prefer Esau because he was fond of game but Rebekah preferred Jacob (Genesis 25:28)? Didn’t King David favoured one of his sons, Absalom who killed Amnon his brother in revenge for raping Tamar, Absalom’s sister (2 Samuel 13:39)? How can justice prevail whenever there is favouritism? Obviously, being capable, God-fearing, trustworthy and hating dishonest gains would not be able to prevent people from loving and thus showing favour to their loved ones! The elder system was better because the LORD took some of the spirit that was on Moses to bestow it on the seventy elders (Numbers 11:25). It was better because the LORD participated more in governing the people.

The gospel reading shows a similar jealousy on the part of the apostles against people outside their circle. Like Joshua, John requested Jesus to stop a person who did not follow them from driving out demons in Jesus’ name (Mark 9:39). Of course, both of them were loyal to their masters respectively. However, one’s loyalty does not necessarily breed jealousy unless his loyalty is under threat! In tonight’s homily, Fr. Albert Liu, OP brought to our attention that previously, a man complained against the apostles’ failure to exorcize a deaf and dumb evil spirit from his son (9:17-18). John’s request made him guilty of trying to monopolize salvation. Didn’t the pre-Vatican II Catholic Church popularly believe that “Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus”? Even today, there are recently voices accusing Pope Francis of saying that “Jesus was unimportant” during his papal visits to four Asian countries in which Catholics are a minority! Such accusation against Pope Francis is unnecessary because who does not belong to Christ? To quote St. Paul, “As a plan for the fullness of times, to sum up all things in Christ, in heaven and on earth” (Ephesians 1:10); “The blessing of Abraham might be extended to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Galatians 3:14). Thus, the Church is Catholic, meaning she is inclusive and rejects nobody!

Beloved brethren! What is the most memorable verse for you in the gospel reading today? I choose, “Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward” (Mark 9:41). As Catholics, surely we belong to Christ. Therefore, we are Christ’s “reward-carriers”. Wherever we go, we are providing opportunities for the people we encounter to receive Christ’s reward. Pray that we are peacemakers to help people receive Christ’s reward of peace. Amen.
God bless!

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