Today's readings and the Catholic bishops

Today, we have readings from Numbers, the Epistle of James and the Gospel of Matthew.  They are extremely interesting, given the events of the day.

In Numbers, we hear the story of the 72 elders who were taken to the mountain of God, where the Spirit rested upon them and they prophesied.  Two elders who had remained behind prophesied while in the camp.  Bystanders wanted them to be rebuked, but Moses answered that he would rather that the entire people prophesy.

This story is a counter-point to the Gospel story with disciples rebuking someone not of their number who was casting out demons in Jesus' name.  Jesus counters that if someone is doing works in His name, he cannot be against Him.

Both of these accounts point out the anti-authoritarian streak in Christianity, where in the early Church, the Spirit of Prophesy was not just about predicting future events, but was about the purification of the community, in particular when the elders have gone off course.  There is supposed to be room for the people to speak up when the leaders do wrong.

The reading from James, which seems out of place, really is not.  It is about the dangers of wealth.  Indeed, it is likely one of the earliest of such tracts where being rich is specifically condemned.

Also in today's Gospel is the story about how it is better to be cast into the sea with a millstone around ones neck than to lead one of the little children into sin.  This has been used since ancient times to enforce doctrinal conformity, however I believe it has more to do with the life-long problem of the Church in corrupting the young sexually.  Just as the sexual revolution did not invent really good sex, I suspect that the problem of sexual abuse also dates to ancient times, even though the shameful nature of the crime led the Gospel writers to talk around it.  There was no organized doctrine in the first century, but there likely was pederasty, which was rampant in ancient society.

How does this apply to 21st Century Catholicism in the Washington and Arlington diocese?  I am certainly not accusing either of having less than exemplary child protection policies.  As far as anyone knows, both are models for the nation to emulate.

What I am counseling against is their desire that the people in the pews follow a specific political agenda which also serves the interests of the rich and powerful.  A focus on life issues, where as I have said previously there is really no well crafted legislation on the table, at the expense of economic issues, is troubling.  This is especially true with regard to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops sponsoring 40 Days for Life, when it would perhaps be more useful to focus on what St. James says today and work for 40 Days for Economic Justice, which would also serve the cause of life better than anything the National Right to Life Committee has put on the table.

This is why I find this Sunday's readings particularly ironic.