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Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

I’ve had a number of requests for a homily I gave a couple weeks ago. Of course, you can always hear the audio of my homilies on our website at https://www.stbernpar.org/welcome/homilies, but I will print as much of it as I am able here.

Sitting the other evening, I imagined the scene in the first reading. First of all, concealed by a cloud, the Lord comes down and talks with Moses. Taking some of the spirit that was “on Moses” he bestowed it on the 70 elders. Moses’ spirit rested on them, and they began to prophesy. Remarkable.

I asked myself if this is some revelation of hierarchy? Did the 70 have the spirit only because it came through Moses? Next comes the answer: No. Eldad and Medad, two of the 72, were absent, still at the camp, and were not there to witness God-in-the-cloud speaking with Moses. But the spirit, obviously not limited by distance, rested on them, too, and they began to prophesy. God’s work was accomplished in them, anyway.

Somebody reports it and Joshua demands that Moses make Eldad and Medad stop. Hear his very interesting response: “Would that all the people of the LORD were prophets! Would that the LORD would bestow his spirit on them all!”

Exclusivity. We are all guilty of it. For centuries we have not wanted to give the benefit of the doubt even to Christians of other camps – let alone people of non-Christian faiths – that their prayers were authentic and that they might be on the same path as we, just at a different humna mile marker on the way.

Again, Pope Francis was misquoted by the media this week: His statement was not that all religions are the same, but that God has provided many paths for people to come to him.

And who would God be, if he only wanted to bestow his spirit on a few? He wouldn’t be God for most.

Can the power of the Spirit be confined to an institution?

He is God of all creation, all peoples, and our human nature is wired to seek him. The same hunger for the mystery of the divine has unfolded in many cultures and contexts. The beliefs might be different, maybe even seemingly contradictory or unsupported by our experience of revelation, but the seeking of the peoples is the same, authentic desire of the human heart for the transcendent God. God does not refuse his spirit to anyone who sincerely seeks him.

This was one of the revelations of Vatican II. Most of Vatican II is a reworking of always-existing Church teaching and Tradition so that it makes more sense in the context of this modern age, rather than medieval times. But this is a new area of theological reflection based in Scripture and Tradition. Listen to Saint Pope Paul VI in his address opening the second convening of Vatican II in September of 1963:

“The Catholic Church looks into the distance, beyond the confines of the Christian horizon; how could she place limits on her love, if this very love is to be that of God the Father who showers his favors upon everyone (cf. Mt 5:45), and who so loved the world that for it he gave his only Son (cf. Jn 3:16)? The world; not me. Look therefore beyond your own sphere and observe those other religions that uphold the meaning and the concept of God as one, Creator, provident, most high and transcendent, that worship God with acts of sincere piety and upon whose beliefs and practices the principles of moral and social life are founded.

“The Catholic Church unquestionably, and to its regret, perceives gaps, insufficiencies and errors in many religious expressions as those indicated, yet she cannot fail to turn her thoughts to them as well, to remind them that the Catholic religion upholds in just regard all that which in them is true, good and human. Moreover, in order to preserve religious sentiment and the worship of God in modern culture – the duty and need of a true civilization – she is in the forefront as the most valid supporter of the rights of God over humanity.”

From the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen gentium, 1964:
“Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience – those too may achieve eternal salvation. Nor shall divine providence deny the assistance necessary for salvation to those who, without any fault of theirs have not yet arrived at an explicit knowledge of God, and who, not without grace, strive to lead a good life. Whatever good or truth is found among them is considered by the church to be a preparation for the Gospel and given by him who enlightens all that they may at length have life.”

The Lord be with you,