Eldad and Medad Prophesy

For John, BLUF:  Stir up the Holy Spirit you received at Confirmation, but know it can be bestowed on anyone who believes.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Left over from the Weekend, the First Reading for the Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Numbers 11:25-29).

The LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to Moses.
Taking some of the spirit that was on Moses,
the LORD bestowed it on the seventy elders;
and as the spirit came to rest on them, they prophesied.

Now two men, one named Eldad and the other Medad,
were not in the gathering but had been left in the camp.
They too had been on the list, but had not gone out to the tent;
yet the spirit came to rest on them also,
and they prophesied in the camp.
So, when a young man quickly told Moses,
"Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp,"
Joshua, son of Nun, who from his youth had been Moses' aide, said,
"Moses, my lord, stop them."
But Moses answered him,
"Are you jealous for my sake?
Would that all the people of the LORD were prophets!
Would that the LORD might bestow his spirit on them all!"

For me, the key take-away is that the Holy Spirit doesn't follow rules, but goes where he wills.  It is God the Holy Spirit.  It is God the Holy Spirit helping members of the Church grow in faith and in doing God's perfect will.

Sure, we try to help God by laying down how we think things go, but we should not believe that we have figured out what it is God is doing.  Sometimes God is doing something else, and we, like Moses, need to be open to it.

Here is what Moses says:

Would that all the people of the LORD were prophets!
Would that the LORD might bestow his spirit on them all!"

And that applies for today as well.  Each of us, in the here and now, needs to be seeking the Holy Spirit and asking for some of that spirit to settle on us.

Regards  —  Cliff