Newsletter September 26th 2021 (26th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

A thought on the readings

We all have a role to play in recognizing and supporting the working of the Spirit in each other.

Towards the end of his first letter to the church in Thessalonica, Paul says, ‘Do not quench the Spirit.’ To quench the Holy Spirit in others is to become a stumbling block, an obstacle, to God’s working in their lives.

· We can quench the Spirit in others and hinder the good work that God is    doing through them for a whole variety of very human reasons.

· We can be motivated by jealousy, as Moses suggests Joshua was in today’s first reading. Like the disciples, we can refuse to acknowledge God’s good work in the lives of others because they are not ‘one of us’, because they  belong to a different church or religion or ethnic group.

· We can be dismissive of the good someone else is doing simply because it is not the way we would have done it, forgetting that the Holy Spirit works in many diverse ways in people’s lives.

Living as we do in a culture that is awash with obstacles and stumbling stones to God’s working in our lives, we who seek to be the Lord’s followers need to ensure that we do not become stumbling stones for one another.

The Lord looks to us to give the cup of cold water, to nurture what is good in each other, and to rejoice in the working of the Spirit in the lives of others.