Today's first reading from the Book of Numbers (11:25-29) highlights Catholic teaching in the depth and breath of God's gifts of the Holy Spirit--One God giving His Spirit to all; that is, the Same Spirit giving different gifts to all-- and that God expects us to use His Spirit freely for the benefit of all.

We hear in this reading that Moses asked God for help in carrying out his ministry as he finds caring for the people by himself too burdensome. God asks Moses to gather 70 assistants to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. When two assistants are not present for the reception of the Holy Spirit God still blessed them with His Spirit. When Joshua, Moses’ aide, asked him to stop the two from prophesying because they are with his group, Moses says "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!" Would that, formed by the singular truth of God that we then would all work together for the common good.

St. James in today's second reading moves from a discourse on living life righteously according to God's Truths to a warning on the problem with earthly treasures is that they rot, tarnish and corrode -- they will not follow us into eternal life. And, if we obtained them through dishonesty that then negativity impacted the poor or vulnerable, then God will be on the side of the poor. The key point here is not that wealth is evil but that the ill-gotten gain of wealth at the unfair expense of the poor is antithetical to God.

Again the Gospel of Mark reiterates the idea that those who do the will of God, even non-religious people, are thus working with God. "For whoever is not against us is for us," Jesus said. The second half of this Gospel calls us to recognize that we must renounce whatever causes us to sin, no matter how indispensable we may think it is. No ifs, ands or buts. For Jesus' major teaching focuses on avoiding all that leads us to sin.

Our goal as Catholic Christians must be to know not only the teachings of the Church as in the "Thou Shall Nots" of our faith but also the reasons behind the teachings--the motivating reasons. When we know this, then we must "Believe It. Live It. Share It." We must live out our faith in the real world of our daily activities of life. We must look to Christ as the example par excellence and also to Pope Francis as a great second example, fully human, living out our faith.