Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 137 September 27, 2009

Where is God? And am I moving closer to Him? That is the important question. The Apostles seemed to have a question about who was connected with God. They seemed to want a yes or no answer to that question. They wanted to know that they were God's friend like Jesus. They wanted to speak God's good news and be like the prophets of old and Jesus the Son of God. They wanted to show God's power by casting out demons. In the first reading there were men of honor who had a special connection with God who were excited about that and cherished this gift of being friends with God and joyful about doing His work for the people. The seemed to have the answer the apostles were looking for. They thought they had the final connection with God. But both the Apostles and the honored elders of the past were challenged. They saw other people doing God's will. The elders so many years before Christ saw other people in the camp with the power to tell people about God and His plan. That made them feel that maybe their connection with God wasn't so special. The Apostles had the same problem. They were casting out devils from people but at one point, they found their power was limited and they found that there were others who had the same power and that confused them. They thought they had the connection with God like Jesus. We too want to have the connection with Jesus. We want to share His power and that is good. We do share His power. But we are not Jesus. Our friendship is not perfect or complete yet. We are still on our way. We are all in process and on a journey toward him. That makes us all equal too. Others may seem to be far from God. Maybe there are some who do not yet know His Church or the power of His Sacraments. But they can be moving toward His Church, His Word, His Sacraments and that means they are His friends even now. We might be very close and know His saving mysteries, but if we are not moving ever closer we are dead. So the important thing for ourselves and for each other is this: Where is God and are we moving closer to Him? That is a question that every person on earth can ask each day. We can ask ourselves that every moment. If we are willing to start again and seek Him, we are on the right path. That makes us people of hope for our own salvation and for the salvation of others and it keeps us from the temptation of making God's love seem intolerant and exclusive to ourselves; for me and not for others.