Believing and Belonging:
We saw someone who is not one of us…” (Mk 9:38, also Num 11:27)
There are two words that have featured very strongly in the study of religion since the 1990’s: ‘Believing’ and ‘Belonging’. In 1994, a British sociologist of religion (Grace Davie) published a book on the rise of secularism in Britain since 1945. She called her book, Believing without Belonging. In the book, she suggests that most people who do not belong to institutional religions have some form of belief about God. It is only that they don’t want to be part of a specific religion – either because they are tired of the atrocities committed in the name of religion or that they simply don’t have the time for it. There have been other books and articles on the same theme using the words, ‘Believing’ and ‘Belonging’. For instance, some Italian scholars have attempted to argue that a large number of Italian Catholics belong to the church without really believing in what the Church teaches. More recently, another British scholar (Abby Day) in her book, Believing in Belonging, suggests that actually people believe because they want to belong to a group that gives them identity.
This whole discussion invites us to ask ourselves – those of us who are believers and belong to the Catholic Church – several questions: Why do we belong to this church? How do we look at someone who does not belong – someone who is not one of us? What if this someone-who-is-not-one-of-us believes, shows a greater commitment to Christian values, and even has some visible gifts of the Holy Spirit? Do we exaggerate our psycho-social need to belong by inventing an in-group/out-group rhetoric even in the name of religion and salvation? Do we want to capture the God of the Universe in our little enclosures (both physical and social) and not allow the Spirit to blow as He wills (see Jn 3:8)?
“If only all God’s people were prophets…” (Num 11:29)
The Liturgy of the Word on this 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time offers us two stories of the struggle between believing and belonging: one from the time of Moses and the other from the time of Jesus. The first story (Num 11:25-29) tells us of two men who had stayed back in the camp while the Lord God descended in the form of cloud on the Tent of Meeting: one was called Eldad and the other Medad. Even though they were not among the seventy elders initially chosen by Moses, the Spirit descended on these two men and they began to prophesy. Moses is magnanimous enough to discern the Will of God here, and add the two to the seventy to make the total number of elders to 72 (six elders each for the 12 tribes of Israel; note also that Jesus in the Gospel of Luke would appoint 72 disciples – Lk 10:1). Through this event Moses is able to recognise the universality of the action of the Spirit. When Joshua wants to see the action of God only within the institutional religion headed by Moses, Moses invites him to have a broader perspective: “Moses replied, ‘Are you jealous on my account? If only all Yahweh’s people were prophets, and Yahweh had given them his spirit!’” (Num 11:29).
In a similar situation presented in the gospel story of today, when John (an apostle who was close to the heart of Jesus as Joshua was to Moses) says, “Master, we saw someone who is not one of us driving out devils in your name, and because he was not one of us we tried to stop him” (Mk 9:38). Jesus emphatically tells him, “You must not stop him; no one who works a miracle in my name could soon afterwards speak evil of me” (Mk 9:39). Jesus reminds us that his Kingdom is not about territories, it is not about institutions, it is not even about the in-group (the churched) and out-group (the unchurched), but it is about hearts of people. And God has the possibility to work within hearts of people, as He desires.
Allowing God to be God – even outside the group we belong to
St Ignatius of Loyola, in his introduction to the Spiritual Exercises, lists 20 points that offer some understanding to spiritual guides on how the 30-day exercises are to be offered. These points are known as annotations. In the 15th annotation,he says,
“…in the Spiritual Exercises, when seeking the Divine Will, it is more fitting and much better, that the Creator and Lord Himself should communicate Himself to His devout soul (the soul of the individual person), inflaming it with His love and praise, and disposing it for the way in which [the soul] will be better able to serve Him in future. So, he who is giving the Exercises should not turn or incline to one side or the other, but standing in the centre like a balance, leave the Creator to act immediately with the creature, and the creature with its Creator and Lord.”
To me, the words of this great Saint, who has influenced the Catechism of the Catholic Church since the Reformation, are very powerful. They are very prophetic. They allow God to be God. These words value nothing but the Will of God! St Ignatius does not want to capture the Will of God within the visible confines of any institution or earthly authority. And this is the heart of Jesus as we hear it read in the gospel story of today.
Our attitude towards those outside the visible confines of the Church
In conclusion to our reflection, we could ask ourselves a basic question: what is our attitude towards people who are outside the visible confines of the Church? These people could include those we so pejoratively refer to as “the pagans, the irreligious, the Protestants, and even the un-churched”. Do we want to remind ourselves of what the Catholic Church itself has said in this regard? Here is a typical statement:
“Since Christ died for all men, and since the ultimate vocation of man is in fact one, and divine, we ought to believe that the Holy Spirit in a manner known only to God offers to every man the possibility of being associated with this paschal mystery” (Gaudium et Spes, no.22).
In a sense, who are we humans even daring to say who is saved and who is not saved? What we can meaningfully do is only to keep sharing our own experience of God with others (that is: evangelisation), as we also take time to wonder how marvellously God works even in their lives (this is: spirituality). Yes, “God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man who fears him and does what is right, is welcome to him” (Acts 10: 34-35).