September 28, 2012

He does not follow us

"Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us."  Jesus replied, "Do not prevent him." (Mk 9:38,39)

Reflection: The phrase “to follow” has a new meaning in this age of Twitter.  I opened a new Twitter account recently: @pfairbanks, and I have a grand total of three “followers” – people who receive my tweets.  Granted I don’t put out many tweets, but it is nice to have that contingent of friends and acquaintances to accompany you down this yellow brick road of social media. 

That’s what Jesus knew was valuable as His new Apostles were testing their new social wings of evangelization.  Jesus knew that those who perform mighty deeds in His name were just as included in the circle of friends as those who follow the same God under a different screen name.  That is, part of our participation in the social medium we call the Kingdom of God means that we drop the urge to prevent (control) the unfamiliar, and rather accept the work of stranger and alien as Jesus did.  After all, we have more to learn about God’s Twitter account than a simple laptop can provide.