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From: James 4:13-17

Trust in Divine Providence

[13] Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such
a town and spend a year there and trade and get gain”; [14] whereas you do not
know about tomorrow. What is your life? for you are a mist that appears for a
little time and then vanishes. [15] Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we
shall live and we shall do this or that.” [16] As it is, you boast in your arrogance.
All such boasting is evil. [17] Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do
it, for him it is sin.

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Commentary:

13-17. Overweening self-confidence is a type of pride because it means one is
forgetful of who God, in his providence, rules over the lives of men. St James
reminds those who are totally caught up in their business affairs that human life
is something very impermanent (v. 14). He made the same point earlier with the
simile of the flower of the grass (cf. 1:9-11); now he puts it in terms of the fleeting-
ness of mist (a familiar Old Testament image; cf., e.g., Job 7:7-16; Ps 102;4; Wis
2:4). “Earthly life is a wearisome thing,” St Gregory the Great reminds us, “more
unreal than fables, faster than a runner, with many ups and down caused by un-
reliability and weakness; we shelter in houses made of clay (in fact, life itself is
merely clay); our fortitude, our resolution, has no substance; such rest and re-
pose as we get in the midst of our activities and difficulties is of no help” (”Expo-
sition on the Seven Penitential Psalms”, Ps. 109, Prologue).

A Christian should trustingly abandon himself into the hands of God, but that
does not in any sense mean that he may irresponsibly opt out of his duties or a-
void exercising his rights.

15. “If the Lord wills”: this expression is to be found elsewhere in the New Tes-
tament; St Paul uses the same words (cf. 1 Cor 4:19) or ones like them, when
speaking about his personal plans (cf. Acts 18:21; Rom 1:10; 1 Cor 16:7). It is a
saying which has passed into popular Christian speech and it shows a readi-
ness to leave one’s future in God’s hands, trusting in divine providence.

17. As elsewhere in the letter, St James ends this passage with a general maxim
(cf. 1:12; 2:13; 3:18). In this instance, to emphasize the need to prove one’s faith
and one’s grasp of the faith by action (cf. 2:14-16), he gives a warning about sins
of omission. Once again, the Master’s teachings are reflected in what the sacred
writer says: “the servant who knew his master’s will, and did not make ready or
act according to his will, shall receive a severe beating” (Lk 12:47).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

From: Mark 9:38-40

Being the Servant of All

[38] John said to Him (Jesus), “Teacher, we saw a man casting out demons in
Your name, and we forbade him, because he was not following us.” [39] But Je-
sus said, “Do not forbid him; for no one who does a mighty work in My name
will be able soon after to speak evil of Me. [40] For he that is not against us is
for us.”

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Commentary:

38-40. Our Lord warns the Apostles, and through them all Christians, against ex-
clusivism in the apostolate—the notion that “good is not good unless I am the one
who does it.” We must assimilate this teaching of Christ’s: good is good, even if
it is not I who do it. Cf. note on Luke 9:49-50.

[The note on Luke 9:49-50 states:

49-50. Our Lord corrects the exclusivist and intolerant attitude of the Apostles. St
Paul later learned this lesson, as we can see from what he wrote during his impri-
sonment in Rome: “Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others
from good will [...]. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in
truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in that I rejoice” (Philippians 1:15, 18). “Rejoice,
when you see others working in good apostolic activities. And ask God to grant
them abundant grace and that they may respond to that grace. Then, you, on
your way: convince yourself that it’s the only way for you” (St. J. Escriva, “The
Way”, 965).]

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.