"The person who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is a friend and an ally — not a 20 percent traitor." Ronald Reagan
The gospel from the Twenty Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time reminds me of Reagan's admonition to his rebuke to his staff for canceling a meeting with his opponents. In the gospel John tells Jesus that
“we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.” Jesus responds that "..no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us."
In the first reading from Numbers (11:25-29) some elders complain to Moses that Eldad and Medad are prophesying even though they were not in the company of seventy.
The urge for ideological purity has long been with us. Unchecked, it can do great harm by disrupting unity and blocking good works. In the Screwtape Letters C.S. Lewis writes that loyalty to a church offers an opportunity for a younger devil to corrupt a young man. Once the young man has joined a church, the senior devil counsels, he can be fooled: the natural desire for doctrinal (and liturgical) purity can be subverted. Need for security in knowing the truth can spark disagreements. Properly fanned, the senior devil writes, disagreements can spawn factions and a church can be torn apart. Had the young man listened to Mark 9:40 this disruption could be avoided.
Our civic and political culture suffers from a the same malady. Ideological purity on issues such as taxes or health care has become a barrier to cooperation. A little humility and willingness to listen to another's point of view will add to our own serenity and contribute to civility in public discourse.
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