My Way or the Highway
Every now and again, our Mom used this phrase when she was exasperated with the antics of one (or all!) of her six children she was raising alone. This phrase covered everything from manners at the dinner table to getting homework done to coming in on time from dates to going to Mass each week. If we were living in our family home, we were expected to follow this rule………and if we didn’t, there were consequences. I’d say it all worked out fairly well, although there were rough patches!
Things seem a bit different in the Scripture readings for today. In the Book of Numbers, Joshua was quite upset when two men prophesized in the name of God even though they had not followed the right procedures in receiving the spirit to do so. “Moses, my lord, stop them”, he said. But Moses answered, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets! Would that the Lord might bestow his spirit on them all!” Moses had the inner freedom to let God work as God wanted to work and he had no need to control this movement from above.
In the Gospel today, the apostle John complains to Jesus that “we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent them because he does not follow us.” Jesus quickly replied, “Do not prevent him. There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me. For whoever is not against us is for us.” Such freedom of spirit in Jesus to see and encourage the good work done for others even though not explicitly of his company.
So, “my way or the highway” can work in some very practical situations, but it is my pastoral experience that it very often falls far short when it comes to the matters of the ways of God. Let’s ask for the grace to discern the difference and to rejoice in the many, marvelous, diverse way God works in our midst.
Monsignor John Urell
