11th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 18 June 2023
Jesus Gives His Disciples Authority to Heal and Set Free
Introduction: Listen for the call of Jesus Who invites you to assist Him in working in His harvesting of souls and serving the lambs of His flock.
What is your vocation? Not about your job or that what
you do to earn money, but about what is your calling from GOD. GOD the Father, in
conjunction with Jesus, is calling you to apply your skills and gifts for bringing
people into a closer relationship with GOD. How are you responding to GOD’s call?
The Lord Jesus needs your help in announcing the Gospel, by your actions, and sometimes
with your words. Seek to answer the call and the Holy Spirit will empower you to
do what Jesus is calling you to do. GOD is gracious
in interacting with humans. GOD calls individuals to share in the spreading of the
divine message of GOD’s love.
Commentary: These reading records the special moment when God chose Israel to
be his own possession, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, formed of twelve
tribes, just as in the gospel reading Jesus will chose Twelve to be the nucleus
of his holy Kingdom. God had led them out of slavery in Egypt with a purpose:
they were to be gradually formed and enlightened to bring God’s Good News to
the whole of creation. First they were given the Law (the Ten Commandments come
just after this passage) which would teach them how the people of God must live
out their vocation. ‘Be holy as I am holy’, acting in the image of God,
completing God’s work of creation. It was not going to be a smooth path. They
rebelled already in the desert, hankering after the ‘leeks and onions’ of Egypt,
and the history of Israel was to be a constant series of rebellion, recall and
forgiveness – just like our relationship with God, full of failure and
return. Formation always involves a fair amount of buffeting and correction,
spiritual growing-pains as well as physical. Like ours, their learning process
was slow and full of mistakes, but in the end they brought salvation into the
world in the person of Jesus.
The Responsorial Psalm is a proclamation
of the people’s chosen position with GOD and their need to praise GOD for the divine
choice of them. The psalm today reminds us that we are GOD’s people, members of
the flock of the LORD. GOD has made us; we belong to GOD. Because of GOD’s loving
generosity, we are invited into a special relationship with GOD. Our job is to accept
GOD’s favours and do GOD’s will.
Commentary: Paul uses several different images to convey the unique work of
Christ. Here he uses ‘reconciled’, ‘justified’, ‘saved’. Is there any
difference between them? We have been reconciled and justified by Christ’s
death, and we shall be saved by his life, presumably by his risen and glorious
life after the Resurrection, which will lead us to share with him in glory; this
is still in the future, the end product. But we have already been reconciled
with God. The enmity which we, the human race, put between ourselves and God by
our constant rebellion, has been dissolved by the overwhelming act of Jesus’
love for his Father. The love of Christ surpasses the disobedience and
hostility of Adam, the human race, in which we all shared. Paul also says that
we have been justified or made righteous by Christ’s death. Human
righteousness, being right with God, is always dependent on God’s own
righteousness. God’s righteousness is his fidelity to his promises to save. In
fulfilling those promises God is being true to himself and his word, and so is
righteous. We are brought under that same righteousness by the fulfilment of
the promises in Christ. So we are already reconciled and justified, and will be
saved by Christ’s life.
Commentary: Jesus was concerned about his people. He wanted to bring to them
the Kingdom of his Father, so he set out to heal them, and sent others out to
do the same. His aim was to bring them the peace of God, to help them by
ridding them of their worries, their sickness, their embarrassment at being
lost sheep without a shepherd (God was always the shepherd in Israel). When he
set up the twelve apostles, he was making a New Israel, a new set of twelve
tribes, as a permanent healing body, to make sure that the Kingdom of the
Father and its peace and generosity would always be available. He was not
setting up a clergy, a set of leaders, but appointing his own helpers in
spreading God’s Kingdom. That is what every Christian must do. Do I make it my
business to spread the Kingdom or the Kingship of God? Am I a labourer in the
harvest, trying to bring God’s peace and healing to all the sick sheep? After
all, I was made in the image of God, and God gave me the task of following on
his creative work. And then Jesus called me, too,
to work with him.
Reflection: Do you believe in the life-changing
power of the Gospel and experience its transforming effect in your life? The core
of the Gospel message is quite simple: the kingdom (or reign) of God is very
near! What is the kingdom of God? It is that society of men and women who know
God's love and mercy, and who willingly obey and honour God as their Lord and King.
In the prayer which Jesus gave to his disciples (the Lord's Prayer or Our
Father), he taught them to pray for God to reign in their daily lives and in
the world around them: May your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as
it is in heaven.
The power of the Gospel to heal and set free
When Jesus proclaimed the good news of God's kingdom, he also demonstrated
the power of the Gospel with supernatural signs and wonders. Jesus healed people
who suffered physical, emotional, and mental illnesses. He freed people from spiritual
bondage to sin and demonic powers. Jesus gave his disciples the same authority he
had to heal and set people free from spiritual bondage.
The Gospel (which literally means "good news") which Jesus
proclaimed is just as relevant and real today, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
If we believe in the Lord Jesus, the Word of God made flesh, and in the power of
the Gospel, we will know and experience the freedom, joy, and power he gives us
that enables us to live and witness as his disciples. No one can buy heaven; but
if we know the love and mercy of Jesus Christ, then we already possess heaven in
our hearts! Do you believe that Jesus can change and transform your life and share
with you the power and authority of God's kingdom?
Jesus chose ordinary people to do extraordinary work
Jesus commissioned his disciples to carry on the works which he did
- to speak God's word and to bring his healing power to the weary and oppressed.
In the choice of the twelve apostles, we see a characteristic feature of God's work
- Jesus chose very ordinary people. They were non-professionals, had no wealth or
privileged position. They were chosen from the common people who did ordinary things,
had no special education, and no social advantages.
Jesus wanted ordinary people who could take an assignment and do
it extraordinarily well. He chose these men, not for what they were, but for what
they would be capable of becoming under his direction and power. When the Lord calls
us to serve, we must not think we have nothing or very little to offer. The Lord
takes what ordinary people, like us, can offer and uses it for greatness in his
kingdom. Do you believe that God wants to work in and through you for his glory?
Lord Jesus, you have chosen me to be your disciple. Take and use
what I can offer, however meager it may seem, for the greater glory of your name.
Daily Quote from the Early Church Fathers: Jesus
empowers his disciples to act in his name, by John Chrysostom (347-407 AD)
"If the Spirit had not yet been given, since Jesus had not yet
been glorified, how then did the disciples cast out the unclean spirits? They did
this by his own command, by the Son's authority. Note the careful timing of their
mission. They were not sent out at the beginning of their walk with him. They were
not sent out until they had sufficiently benefited by following him daily. It was
only after they had seen the dead raised, the sea rebuked, devils expelled, the
legs of a paralytic brought to life, sins remitted, lepers cleansed, and had received
a sufficient proof of his power both by deeds and words - only then did he send
them out. And he did not send them out unprepared to do dangerous deeds, for as
yet there was no danger in Palestine. They had only to stand against verbal abuse.
However, Jesus still warned them of larger perils to come, preparing them for what
was future." (excerpt from THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY
32.3)
GOD’S NUDGES
“I bore you up on eagle wings.” —Exodus 19:4
Researchers have discovered that eagles live in
cliffs of the mountainous Sinai region in which God spoke the above words to Moses.
To teach their young to fly, the eagles nudge their young nestlings out of the nest,
causing them to free-fall off the side of the cliff. If the baby eagle isn’t able
to discover how to fly in the pressure of the moment, the mother eagle swoops downward
and “catches” the young eagle on her extended wings. She then flies around with
her young offspring to give it the sensation of flying. She repeats this until the
young eagle learns how to fly on its own.
Moses declares of God: “As an eagle incites its
nestlings forth by hovering over its brood, so He spread His wings to receive them
and bore them up on His pinions” (Dt 32:11). God didn’t create us to stay in
the safety of the nest. He nudges us out of our comfort zone, personally bears us
up on His wings when we fall (Ex 19:4), and assures us of His loving care
(1 Pt 5:7). Though this frequent divine nudging
might seem stressful or even unbearable, the Lord uses it to renew us rather than
exhaust us (Ps 103:5).
An eagle can’t fly if it is scared stiff. It must
relax and flow with the wind. Likewise, we must relax, let it be done to us, and
let the wind of the Spirit carry us wherever God wills (Jn 3:8). When we abandon ourselves to God’s
nudges, we discover that instead of stressing out, we learn to fly. “Trust in the
Lord with all your heart” (Prv 3:5). “Soar as with eagles’ wings” (Is 40:31).
Prayer: Father, renew my youth “like the eagle’s” (Ps 103:5). “It is precisely in this that God
proves His love for us: that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Rm 5:8. “Praise the Lord, all you nations;
glorify Him, all you peoples!” (Ps 117:1)
The personal action for today: How would
I describe my vocation as opposed to my job? What thoughts go through my head as
I think about the fact that Jesus laid down His life for me while I was a sinner
– an enemy of GOD? How can I be more compassionate in living out my vocation at
home, at work, in my environment?