ANSWER by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM on April 16, 2004

Dear Linus: The verse you are talking about is Luke 9:49-50: "And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbad him, because he followeth not with us. And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us." This teaching is about humility in accepting that God can work through whomever He wishes. St. Paul makes this point when people came to him and reported that some people were preaching the Gospel out of selfish ambition. St. Paul surprised his listeners when he said, "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.' -- Phil 1:15, 18 St. Escriva said about this: "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 way for you." The virtue of truth requires us to affirm the fullness of the faith in the Catholic Church and that other faith groups have less-than-full measure of the Faith that Jesus and the Apostles gave us. Indeed, many non-Catholics are in "material" heresy of one sort or another, many have unusual understandings of the Bible, but in-as-much as they preach the Christian message, we can rejoice in that and pray for them to do as well at that as they can. Even the bigots against the Catholic Church we can rejoice about when they are not on their soap-box trashing the Church but are preaching good old fashion Gospel. God works through the best of us and the worst of us, to most enlightened of us and the most unenlightened. For this we praise God. God Bless, Bro. Ignatius Mary