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		<td align=left valign=top width=20%><font face="Maiandra GD" color=#7c6262 size=+1><i>What the Pope Really Said.</i>

<p><hr noshade align=center color=#7c6262><p>The Twenty-Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time.<small><br><br>Lessons from the secondary dominica, according to the ordinary form of the Roman Rite:<br><br>• Numbers 11: 25-29.<br>• Psalm 19: 8, 10, 12-14.<br>• James 5: 1-6.<br>• Mark 9: 38-43, 45, 47-48.</small>

<p><hr noshade align=center color=#7c6262><p>The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost.<small><br><br>Lessons from the dominica, according to the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite:<br><br>• I Corinthians 1: 4-8.<br>• Psalm 121: 1, 7.<br>• Matthew 9: 1-8.</small>

<p><hr noshade align=center color=#7c6262><p>The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost; the Feast of the Holy Martyr Callistratus & His Companions; and, the Feast of Our Venerable Father Nilus.<small><br><br>Lessons from the pentecostarion, according to the Ruthenian recension of the Byzantine Rite:<br><br>• II Corinthians 9: 6-11.<br>• Luke 5: 1-11.</small>

</font><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><font face="Maiandra GD" color=#7c6262 size=-1><a href="index.htm">FatherVenditti.com</a></font><br><br><br>

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		<td valign=top width-80%><font face="Maiandra GD"><p align=justify><img src="apostles.jpg" align=left hspace=15 vspace=5>9:32 AM 9/27/2015 — Either by chance or by Providence, today's Scripture lessons are particularly appropriate in light of our Holy Father's Apostolic visit to our country, and especially his participation in the World Meeting of Families.

<br>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;In our first lesson, from the Book of Numbers, Moses finds himself in a situation all to familiar to many of us: he's tired; he doesn't feel he has sufficient strength to carry on as the oracle between God and His people, and asks for help.  So, God takes some of the Spirit He had given to Moses, and bestows it on seventy elders; but, two of them were not able to be physically present when this happened.  As a consequence, when Joshua sees these two prophesying in the Lord's name, he gets upset and tells Moses to stop them.  Why is Joshua wrong to do this?  Because he's imposing on these two a requirement that God didn't impose.  Neither God nor Moses ever said that all seventy of these men had to be there in the tent when the Spirit was sent down upon them; Joshua just assumed it.

<br>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;The event recorded by Saint Mark in today's Gospel lesson is very similar: the Blessed Apostle John has seen some guy casting out demons in our Lord's name; and, because this man isn't a member of the apostolic “club,” he wants our Lord to stop him.  Our Lord's correction of John does not surprise us, and His rebuke to the Apostle is what we've come to expect: “The man who is not against you is on your side” (9: 39 Knox [9: 40 NABRE]).*  And, as if that wasn't enough, the very first line of today's lesson is as explicit as it can be, if you know enough to read it between the lines: “John said to him, 'Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us'” (v. 38 NABRE [v. 37 Knox]).  Notice how he words it: not “he does not follow <i>You,</i>” but “he does not follow <i>us.</i>”  The Apostles have allowed themselves to get so caught up in the excitement of the ministry that they're beginning to mistake their own will for the will of God; so, this is a problem our Lord has to nip in the bud, and He does.

<br>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;Most likely, most of the homilies preached on these lessons around the country, taking their cue from some of our Holy Father's messages this past week, will focus on the whole idea of diversity as it relates to these Scripture passages, and how we must accept everyone's unique gifts, and not exclude anyone because they're not like us, or speak our language, or see things our way.  And all of that's very true.  Fill in the blanks, blah, blah, blah.  Turn on EWTN all this week and that's what you're going to get, so you don't need me to tell you that stuff.

<br>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;But we have to live the whole of the Gospel, not just the portions made populist by current events and media reports of papal pronouncements, and there's a lot more to the lessons of today's Holy Mass than a call to be inclusive; for, in the same Gospel lesson in which our Lord rebukes the Apostles for trying to stifle the work of someone simply because he wasn't in their clubhouse, we have those uncomfortable verses in which He also tells them to cut off a sinful hand, since it's better to go to heaven with one hand than go to hell with two; and, if you should loose custody of the eye, then pluck it out, since it's better to go to heaven with only one eye than to hell with two.  And we hear that and say to ourselves, “He can't possibly mean that the way it sounds.  And now I'll sit back and listen as Father explains, in his homily, how it's all just symbolic and that our Lord didn't really mean it that way.”  But by what twist of logic do we take the first half of today's lesson—the half that's all warm and fuzzy—and take it at face value, and dismiss the second half of the same lesson because it's too harsh for us to handle?

<br>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;Of course, our Lord is not actually recommending that we cut off body parts, but neither can we separate the two halves of the lesson to embrace one literally and the other not so much.  Our Lord's rebuke of the Apostles for trying to stop the non-Apostolic man from casting out demons, and his hyperbolic instruction in cutting off sinful body parts, are all one lesson about how to evaluate and regulate apostolic activity in the Church.  Everybody in the Church, both in the time of the Apostles and now, has a different job.  <img src="work.jpg" align=right hspace=15 vspace=5>This was brought out very clearly in the World Meeting of Families.  We have husbands, we have mothers, we have students, we have priests, we have bishops, we have teachers, with have popes.  Each one has a job and duties suited to the state in life each occupies, and the individual gifts and abilities bestowed on them by God.  But even though each one's duties differ from another's, each one must still function within the framework, and the rules, established by the Church for everyone.  Being different and having different roles to fill does not mean that each one is a Lone Ranger; and, when one of them, for whatever reason, goes off the rails, for the good of the whole he must be cut off.

<br>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;Saint John Paul II had a general rule he used for judging whether someone's apostolic activity was helpful or harmful to the Church.  Recognizing “the primacy given to the call of every Christian to holiness,” he said that the best indicator of the authentic nature of someone's activity for Christ was that it proclaimed and defended …

<blockquote><small><p align=justify>… the Catholic faith, embracing and proclaiming the truth about Christ, the Church and humanity, in obedience to the Church's Magisterium as the Church interprets it.  For this reason every association of lay faithful must be a forum where the faith is proclaimed as well as taught in its total content.**</blockquote></small>

<p align=justify>The two important words in that quote are “obedience” and “total”: obedience to the Church which alone has the authority, given to her by Christ Himself, to teach in His Name; and, total in proclaiming the whole of the truth taught by that Church, and not just the parts of the Catechism with which one personally agrees.

<br>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;When the non-Apostolic exorcist was casting out demons and the Apostles wanted him stopped, what was it that indicated to our Lord that he was OK, other than the fact, of course, that our Lord is God and knows everything?  Listen to the first verse again: “John said to him, 'Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons <i>in your name</i> …'” (Mark 9: 38 NABRE).  There's the indicator right there!  The man was doing this in the Name of our Lord, not in his own name for his own benefit.  Whether the Apostles were tinged with jealously, like Joshua in the Book of Numbers, or genuinely concerned for the integrity of the true faith we'll never know, and it's probably unfair of us to ascribe a motive to their attitude, as it could very well be the latter; but, the motive of the non-Apostolic exorcist is clear: everything he's doing is in the Name of the Lord.  And even if, by circumstance, it had turned out that he was making some mistakes or saying a few things here or there that needed correction, that wouldn't have invalidated his entire ministry, because another indicator that his ministry is valid would then have been his willingness to accept correction from the Church.  Nobody who works for or in the Church, priests included, is perfect; but, as our Lord Himself says, “There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me” (v. 39 NABRE).  And, if you look at the Greek text of Mark, it's possible to translate that verse in the form of a question: “Is it likely that someone who does a deed in my name will speak ill of me?”***  Not very.  And what's so scary about more people doing things in the Holy Name of Jesus?

<br>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;When Joshua complained to Moses about the two elders who were missing from their commissioning ceremony, Moses threw up his hands and shouted, “Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets!  Would that the Lord might bestow his spirit on them all!” (Number 11: 29 NABRE).  And wouldn't that be something: if every baptized Catholic became an apostle for the Church and the faith?  But isn't that exactly what we are all called to be?  Isn't that exactly what our Holy Father has been telling us during his visit with us?  Isn't that what the World Apostolate of Fatima is all about?  I think you know the answers to those questions.

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<font face="Maiandra GD" color=#7c6262><p align=justify><small>* There is a discrepancy in the numbering of the verses here between the Vulgate and Msgr. Knox's translation, and that of the NABRE and the Roman Missal Third Edition.  The former designate the first verse of today's lesson as verse 37, the latter as verse 38.  This particular verse, in the NABRE, is verse 40.  The Greek agrees with the NABRE.</small></font>

<font face="Maiandra GD" color=#7c6262><p align=justify><small>** Apostolic Exhortation, <i>Christifideles Laici,</i> Dec. 30, 1988, art. 30.</small></font>

<font face="Maiandra GD" color=#7c6262><p align=justify><small>*** ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν: μὴ κωλύετε αὐτόν, οὐδεὶς γάρ ἐστιν ὃς ποιήσει δύναμιν ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματί μου καὶ δυνήσεται ταχὺ κακολογῆσαί με …</small></font>

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