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 asking about your job or what you do to earn money, but asking about what is your calling from God. God the Abba-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. In the First Reading, Moses hears God’s summon and reacts. 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. St. Paul, in today’s Second Reading, declares God’s great love for people, even those who have demonstrated their enmity with God and refused to value their specialness in the eyes of God. In the Gospel, Jesus’ response to the compassion He feels towards the people around Him who are hurting, is to send His “apostles” to minister to their needs and proclaim God’s message.

First Reading: Exodus 19:2-6a: ‘You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’

Commentary: This 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.

Responsorial Psalm 100: 1-2. 3. 5; We are his people, the sheep of his flock.

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 favors and do God’s will.

Second Reading: Romans 5:6-11: ‘If we were reconciled by the death of the Son, much more shall we be saved by his life.’

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.

Gospel: Matthew 9:36-10:8: ‘Jesus called to him his twelve disciples and sent them out.’

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 honor 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."

producing the fruit of love: “God proves His love for us.” —Romans 5:8

In this time after Pentecost, the Holy Spirit is trying to produce in us His fruit of love (Gal 5:22), for without love even the greatest gifts of the Spirit amount to nothing (1 Cor 13:1-3). We “love because He first loved us” (1 Jn 4:19). Therefore, the first step in producing the fruit of love in our hearts is to let the Spirit pour out His love in our hearts (Rm 5:5) and to help us know and believe in this love (1 Jn 4:16). Then, as God’s beloved, we will love God, ourselves, our neighbors, and even our enemies.

To produce the fruit of love, the Holy Spirit helps us realize the love God has for us by focusing our attention on Jesus’ crucified love. “It is precisely in this that God proves His love for us” (Rm 5:8). “Is it possible that He Who did not spare His own Son but handed Him over for the sake of us all will not grant us all things besides?” (Rm 8:32) Jesus’ death on the cross for love of us is the definitive proof of God’s perfect, unconditional, infinite, and everlasting love for us.

“Beloved, if God has loved us so, we must have the same love for one another” (1 Jn 4:11). “Beloved, let us love one another because love is of God” (1 Jn 4:7). Come, Holy Spirit, to produce the fruit of love.

Prayer: Father, make me “grasp fully, with all the holy ones, the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ’s love, and experience this love which surpasses all knowledge” (Eph 3:18-19). “The harvest is good but laborers are scarce. Beg the Harvest Master to send out laborers to gather His harvest.” —Mt 9:37-38. Praise Jesus, crucified and risen Lord of life and love! Alleluia! (see 1 Thes 4:14)

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?

Saint Albert Chmielowski: Born in Igolomia near Kraków as the eldest of four children in a wealthy family, Albert Chmielowski was christened Adam. During the 1864 revolt against Czar Alexander III, Adam’s wounds forced the amputation of his left leg.

His great talent for painting led to studies in Warsaw, Munich, and Paris. Adam returned to Kraków and became a Secular Franciscan. In 1888, when he founded the Brothers of the Third Order of Saint Francis, Servants to the Poor, he took the name Albert. They worked primarily with the homeless, depending completely on alms while serving the needy regardless of age, religion, or politics. A community of Albertine sisters was established later.

Pope John Paul II beatified Albert Chmielowski in 1983, and canonized him six years later. His liturgical feast is celebrated on June 17.

Reflecting on his own priestly vocation, Pope John Paul II wrote in 1996 that Albert Chmielowski had played a role in its formation “because I found in him a real spiritual support and example in leaving behind the world of art, literature, and the theater, and in making the radical choice of a vocation to the priesthood” (Gift and Mystery: On the Fiftieth Anniversary of My Priestly Ordination). As a young priest, Karol Wojtyla repaid his debt of gratitude by writing The Brother of Our God, a play about Brother Albert’s life.