CT - Catholic Telegraph

Sometimes, God works in mysterious ways

Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), Numbers 11:25-29

The Book of Numbers is the fourth book of the Pentateuch. It is a combination of law and history. It gives the history of the Israelites' wanderings from the end of their encampment at Mt. Sinai to their arrival at the borders of the promised land. Interspersed with the historical material are sections of legal ordinances.

This Sunday's reading is from Numbers' historical material.

The people have now gone a three days' journey from Mt. Sinai and they are complaining - again! They want more meat. They remembered all the wonderful things they used to eat in Egypt, and now all they have is the tiresome manna that God sent them each day.

Now it is Moses' turn to complain. He goes into the presence of the Lord and laments the seemingly unending clamor of the people. "How can you expect me," he asks God, "to take care of a multitude like this? How can I provide what they claim they need? I can't stand this much longer." God responds, first of all, by assuring Moses that the people would soon have more meat than they could handle. The next day, a flight of countless quail descended on the camp, and the people had all they wanted and more. God also responded to Moses by promising him help in the person of elders and authorities among the people. They would share the burden of governance. Presumably these men would assist Moses in organizing the people, in pronouncing judgment in disputes, in offering advice.

As our reading begins, Moses has led the selected men outside the camp to stand around the tent that held the presence of the Lord. Now the Lord made the elders to be like Moses by giving them a share in the spirit that had been given to Moses. As they received their share of Moses' spirit, "they prophesied," that is they proclaimed the praises of God and began to interpret God's word.

But there was a snag. Two of the chosen men, Eldad and Medad, were supposed to be in the group of the elders, but for some reason had remained behind in the camp. Now they were discovered prophesying, too, just like the others! Joshua, Moses' right-hand man, urges him to make them stop, because it looks like there are sources of the spirit that are not connected with Moses. But Moses is not disturbed. It's not his spirit that's being portioned out but the Lord's, and if the Lord wants Eldad and Medad to be among those who prophesy, so much the better. Best of all would be if everybody shared in the spirit!

In the first part of the Gospel reading for this Sunday (Mark 9:38-41), we see an occurrence that is almost an exact parallel to the story about Eldad and Medad. Somebody who was not of Jesus' company was casting out demons in Jesus' name. The disciples want Jesus to make him stop. What right had this outsider to invoke the power of Jesus? But Jesus will have none of it. "Let him alone," Jesus says. "He's not doing any harm, and he may win a bit of good will for us all."

What God's word teaches us in these two readings is a lesson that we might not advert to very often. The lesson is that the working of God's power is not confined exclusively to channels that God has already identified. God can and does work in ways that are different from and beyond the instrumentalities that He has informed us about. God's actions in the world are not limited to the means that have been revealed to us.

God reaches out to us through the sacraments. But that doesn't mean that God can't also reach out to people without the sacraments. God leads and guides us through the sacred Scriptures. But that doesn't mean that God can't also lead and guide people without the Scriptures. In the teaching of the church God brings us to the knowledge of the truth, to access to the life of the risen Christ, to guidance for upright living. But that doesn't mean that everybody who is not a card carrying church member is therefore excluded from God's loving care.

The sacraments and the Scriptures and the church are the ordinary means of God's care for human beings, the means through which most people are brought to salvation. But God is bigger and more powerful that sacraments and Scripture and church. He is not obliged to limit His love and goodness to those particular means.

Even today there are Eldads and Medads.

For reflection and discussion

Where do I see God at work outside the structures of the Church?

Do I find such action on God's part troubling or edifying?