[stephenkhoo]

AUTHORITY TO TEACH MUST BE ACCOMPANIED BY THE POWER TO HEAL AND CAST OUT DEVILS
SCRIPTURE READINGS: EZRA 9:5-9; LK 9:1-6

“Jesus called the Twelve together and gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.” This is the mission that has been given to us all as Christians. The Good News is not a set of doctrines or laws or ethics. It is principally, the demonstration of the visitation of God among His people seen in the overthrowing of the power of Satan and his angels; and the healing of men from illnesses. This is the authority given to the Twelve. Teachings alone without being accompanied by signs will not be sufficient to demonstrate the power and wisdom of God. So too St Francis of Assisi told his friars to go out and proclaim the Good News, adding, “if necessary proclaim with words.” Otherwise, the actions alone would suffice.

We too have been given the power to teach and proclaim the Good News. The first aspect of our proclamation is to teach and reveal Christ to all of humanity. As proclaimers we must explain to others how Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the world. Jesus must be shown to be the revealer of the Father’s love for us, and the Way, the Truth and the Life. He is the answer to the meaning and riddles of life. In His passion, death and resurrection, we come to appreciate the place of suffering and death, and most of all, the ultimate life with the Father that awaits us upon death.

But all these truths about Jesus as the Saviour would be mere words unless Jesus is experienced as real in the power of the Holy Spirit. The reality of Jesus is made real when we exercise the power of healing given to us by Jesus through the Holy Spirit. This healing would involve the healing of physical illnesses, emotional, spiritual and psychological wounds. The only way to make Jesus real to people is when they experience the mercy and love of God through us. This was how the Israelites encountered the living God too in their misery, when they were given permission to return to their homeland. “But now, suddenly, the Lord our God by his favour has left us a remnant and granted us a refuge in his holy place; this is how our God has cheered our eyes and given us a little respite in our slavery. For we are slaves: but God has not forgotten us in our slavery; he has shown us kindness in the eyes of the kings of Persia, obtaining permission for us to rebuild the Temple of our God and restore its ruins, and he has found us safety and shelter in Judah and in Jerusalem.”

Necessarily, we must make available the ministry of healing in the Church besides the works of mercy and compassion in looking after the poor, the sick and the oppressed. Social work and works of charity, whilst indispensable, should also include spiritual healing as well. Otherwise, Christian charity is reduced to the level of all other charities that other religions and humanitarian organizations do. The unique characteristic of Christian charity is that we offer the poor and the sick not just material and physical support but also spiritual support. What man needs most in the final analysis is to encounter God’s love and human love. No amount of material aid can satisfy the human person who needs to find God. In the final analysis, only God can satisfy!

Of course, as the proclaimers of the kingdom we have to take up warfare against evil. This includes speaking against social injustices, the discrimination of the poor, the migrants, of race and religion. We need to protect the dignity of women, children and the lives of unborn babies. The Church remains the spokesman for the voiceless and the oppressed, proclaiming the truth and justice. If we do not speak for the marginalized of society, who will? As the first reading asks of us, we must bring people to repentance for the sins and crimes they commit against humanity. The world tries to silence the conscience of man but as Kant says the moral imperative remains in us. As Christians, we are called to be watchmen of the sheep of God. We are responsible for warning them of the dangers, to bring back the lost, heal the wounded and put right those who stray from the way. We are called to be the conscience of society.

But we cannot do this work alone. It is significant that Jesus called the Twelve together. In other words, we must work together in the mission of the Church. The mission must always be accomplished in communion with each other. If the Church remains united, then we can face the onslaught and persecution of the world. The real challenge is to preserve the unity of mission among Church leaders and members. So long as we are divided from within, we cannot be a potent force to be reckoned with in the world. Christianity lost its influence because of division. Truly the greatest scandal of Christianity is the division among Christians. Today, Christians espouse contradictory teachings, not just doctrinal but moral truths as well, so much so, we no longer know where the truth lies. Thanks be to God, in the Catholic Church, we still have the Twelve working together in the College of Bishops when all bishops must teach and act in union with the Pope in guiding the Church of Christ!

If it is true that by extension, the power to heal and reconcile is given to all baptized Christians and in an authoritative way to ordained ministers, what is it that prevents us from demonstrating the power of the Good News entrusted to us? If we lack power and authority, we lack first and foremost, repentance. Unless we recognize our own sinfulness and confess that we are sinners too, we can never be compassionate towards others. Leaders must first truly repent of their sins before they are empowered to extend the mercy of God to others. Ezra in the first reading did just that. “At the evening sacrifice I, Ezra, came out of my stupor and falling on my knees, with my garment and cloak torn, I stretched out my hands to the Lord my God, and said: ‘My God, I am ashamed, I blush to lift my face to you, my God. For our crimes have increased, until they are higher than our heads, and our sin has piled up to heaven. From the days of our ancestors until now our guilt has been great; on account of our crimes we, our kings and our priests, were given into the power of the kings of other countries, given to the sword, to captivity, to pillage and to shame, as is the case today.”

Secondly, we need to repent, especially of our pride, so that we will rely on God and not on our human power and strength. This is what Jesus demands of us. He said, “Take nothing for the journey: neither staff, nor haversack, nor bread, nor money; and let none of you take a spare tunic.” The evangelical counsels of poverty, obedience and chastity which requires the grace of God and not merely human will, keep us humble and dependent on Him. For without His grace, poverty is difficult to live out as we are insecure people; obedience is impossible in a world of relativism and autonomy; and chastity is even more difficult when many people have resigned to the fact that there is no true love on earth and so what is left is merely causal and superficial love. These evangelical counsels drive us to total helplessness. For such people, if they turn to God instead of looking towards themselves or a human solution, they will find the strength of God to overcome all things.

In the final analysis, Jesus said, “whatever house you enter, stay there; and when you leave, let it be from there. As for those who do not welcome you, when you leave their town shake the dust from your feet as a sign to them.” In other words, we only need to do what we can with the grace of God. We must leave conversion to Him. We do not pass judgment on them but surrender them to the Lord who will, in His own ways, unknown to us, bring them to conversion.