Oblates of St. Francis de Sales

New DeSales World Newsletter - Summer Edition

26th Sunday In Ordinary Time (September 28, 2003)

Suggested Emphasis

"It is not good for man to be alone."

Readings Nm 11: 25-29 Ps 19: 8, 10, 12-14 Jas 5: 1-6 Mk 9: 39-43, 45, 47-48

Suggested Emphasis

"How offensive to God are rash judgments."

Salesian Perspective

"How offensive to God are rash judgments!" says St. Francis de Sales. "The judgments of the children of men are rash because they are not the judges of one another, and when they pass judgment on others they usurp the office of our Lord...if an action has many difference aspects, we must always think of the one which is best. " (Introduction to the Devout Life, Part III, Chapter 28)

These words of de Sales would have been very good advice for the disciple John in today's Gospel when he asks Jesus to stop a man expelling demons in His name "because he is not of our company." They are in fact very similar to the advice Jesus himself gives John: "Do not try to stop him. No man who performs a miracle using my name can at once speak ill of me. Anyone who is not against us is with us." John is not the only one who could profit from this advice. Many of us could too.

These words of Jesus and St. Francis de Sales remind us that all those who do the work of Jesus belong to Him, whether they are "of our company" - members of our Roman Catholic Church - or not. They remind us that we should focus less on denominational labels and more on the actions, spirit, and attitudes of fellow followers of Christ - without in any way diminishing our faith in the Roman Catholic dispensation as the mother of all Christian religions. Most of all, they remind us that if there is any trace of prejudice or bigotry remaining in our hearts against members of other Christian religions, we should rid ourselves of it immediately. The sad truth of history is that Christians over the centuries have spent too much time building fences and too little time building highways for God. It is time now to dismantle the fences and build the highways. It is time now to tear down the walls and build bridges. It is time now to reach out with love to all our allies in the Christian faith, wherever we find them.

God needs you and me - and Christians everywhere - to be His prophets. Prophets in the Biblical sense typically arise at a time when society has stopped listening to what God says. Biblical prophets speak "on behalf of God." They do not tell others what will happen; they tell them what should happen. They tell others what God wants and what God says. God desperately needs you and me to speak on His behalf, to tell others what God wants for us. God needs you and me to stand up and be counted on the values of the Gospel. God needs you and me to tell others that God wants peace, not war; life, not death; love, not hate; concern for the other, not preoccupation with self; freedom, not license; truth, not political correctness; justice for all, not discrimination.

In the words of St. Francis de Sales, he needs us to "often speak of God in familiar conversation with our...friends and neighbors." (Introduction to the Devout Life, Part III, Chapter.26) And "if the world holds us to be fools," because we are behaving like prophets, "let us hold the world to be mad." (Ibid, Part IV 4, Chapter 1)

Rev. Michael S. Murray, OSFS, is Executive Director of the
De Sales Spirituality Center in Washington, DC