Wednesday, September 27, 201725th Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Ezr. 9:5-9
Gospel: Lk 9:1–6
Jesus called his twelve disciples and gave them power and authority to drive out all evil spirits and to heal diseases. And he sent them to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He instructed them, “Don’t take anything for the journey, neither walking stick, nor bag, nor bread, nor silver coins; and don’t even take a spare tunic. Whatever house you enter, remain there until you leave that place. And wherever they don’t welcome you, leave the town and shake the dust from your feet: it will be as a testimony against them.”So they set out and went through the villages, proclaiming the good news and healing people everywhere.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
Jesus’ message to the Twelve before they left for the mission carried four distinct instructions. They were supposed to “Heal” the sick, “Exorcise” demons, “Announce” the coming of the kingdom, and “Leave” when a particular town is unresponsive. The acronym is “heal” for better recall. Jesus already performed these before he commissioned his disciples to do likewise.
Jesus healed the sick. After Jesus healed Simon’s mother-in-law, he also healed all the sick that were brought to him (Luke 4: 38-40). He cured the leper who said, “Lord if you wish you can heal me” (Luke 5: 12-16), the paralytic that was lowered down from the roof (Luke 5:17-26), a man whose right hand was withered even though healing was forbidden on a Sabbath (Luke 6:6-10), the slave of the centurion (Luke 7:1-10), the daughter of Jairus, and the woman with a hemorrhage (Luke 8:40-56).
Jesus exorcised demons that kept shouting, “You are the Son of God” (Luke 4:38-40, 41). At the territory of the Gerasenes, Jesus drove out a legion of demons from a possessed man and allowed these demons to possess the pigs (Luke 8:40-56).
Jesus announced the kingdom. When the crowd went looking for him at Capernaum after he healed many sick people, Jesus said he also had to go to other towns to announce the kingdom (Luke 4:43; Luke 8:1).
Jesus left unresponsive towns in testimony against them. The disciples’ suggestion was to bring down fire and brimstone upon them. But Jesus took the active-non-violent option of shaking the dust of his feet against them. He gave the same instruction to his disciples at their commissioning (Luke 9:1-6).
Healing, exorcising, and announcing the kingdom are works of love. Is the fourth instruction to abandon unresponsive towns out of place? No. The fourth is not about getting back at unresponsive towns but about God’s deep respect for human freedom. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM
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