July 10, 2019
Wednesday, 14th Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Gen 41:55-57; 42:5–7a, 17–24a
Gospel: Mt 10:1–7
Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority over the unclean spirits to drive them out and to heal every disease and sickness.These are the names of the twelve apostles: first Simon, called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon, the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, the man who would betray him.Jesus sent these twelve on mission with the instruction: “Do not visit pagan territory and do not enter a Samaritan town. Go instead to the lost sheep of the people of Israel. “Go and proclaim this message: The kingdom of heaven is near.”
D@iGITAL… EXPERIENCE
Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience
In commissioning his group Jesus gave each of the members some special authority to drive out demons and heal diseases. Today’s Gospel reading is about the details of this commissioning as reported by the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew’s version is specific about the number of followers commissioned. “Jesus called his twelve disciples to him,” Matthew writes (Matt. 10:1). This special emphasis on the number twelve is a reference to the Twelve Tribes of Israel and establishes Jesus’ authority to call the Twelve Tribes to the kingdom of God.
Matthew makes no mention about any instruction from Jesus to convert people. Jesus’ explicit instruction was just to heal and announce that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. The empowerment of his disciples to convert others came later after the resurrection when he said, “Go and make disciples of all nations…”
We too are called to evangelize the world. Matthew’s version provides a template of how we can be effective in this calling. Like the Apostles, we do best if before attempting to convert others, we start as healers and busters of evil. Admittedly we don’t have the gift of healing given to the Twelve Apostles. But there are many ways to heal. There are many wounded people we can cure by our forgiving embrace. We may not be formidable busters of evil as the Apostles were but surely we can diminish the human resources of the devil by falling out from the ranks of Satan’s minions. Converting ourselves back to God means one devil less in society.
We just have to focus on healing others and dismantling evil structures. Conversion of people will come as a matter of course because actions still speak louder than words. This way we become Jesus’ effective partners in his work of evangelization. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
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