Wednesday in the 25th Week of Ordinary Time, September 27, 2023

Luke 9, 1-6

Jesus summoned the Twelve and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He said to them, “Take nothing for the journey, neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money, and let no one take a second tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there and leave from there. And as for those who do not welcome you, when you leave that town, shake the dust from your feet in testimony against them.” Then they set out and went from village to village proclaiming the good news and curing diseases everywhere.

“Jesus summoned the Twelve and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases.”  We should notice that “power” and “authority” do not mean the same thing.  For instance, an ordained Catholic priest has the power to confect the sacraments but unless his bishop grants him the authority (which is called “the facilities”) to confect them, he may not do so licitly.  The Lord Jesus gives the Apostles, in this Gospel Reading, the power as well as the authority required in order to expel demons and cure diseases.  Now, it is the Lord Jesus himself who gives them this power and authority.  He does not ask the Father to give it to them.  He gives it by the authority the Father gives him to do this.  But in so doing, also shows himself to be divine, for a mere man cannot do this.  “He sent them to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick.”  In his merciful love for mankind, the Lord sends the Apostles to preach salvation to the towns and villages he may not visit during the short time of his Public Life, and to cure the sick in it.  In this way, he visits through the persons of the Apostles and not merely in message but in power, for they cure the sick in his name.  Jesus gives them the power and authority to cure the sick and expel demons for the good of those so afflicted, in order to show his love for them, and in order to provide signs of his power, of his divinity, so that the people might believe in him.  

“Take nothing for the journey, neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money, and let no one take a second tunic.”  St. Paul gives a very graphic picture of his work as an Apostle: “(D-R): “in laborious work and pain, in much sleeplessness, in hunger and thirst, in going hungry often, in cold and nakedness” (2 Corinthians 11, 27).  The Apostles do not go before the people as conquerors in regalia but as lowly servants in order to show that they do not come in order to profit, but in order that the people before them may profit.  They live in poverty so that they might enrich, showing their sincerity.  They do not preach the Gospel for their own sake but endure all things in order to preach the Gospel for the sake of others.  “Whatever house you enter, stay there and leave from there.”. That is, Accept whatever hospitality is offered to you, no matter how little it may be, and show your gratitude by continuing there as long as you remain in the town, bringing honor to those who help you — you who preach the Gospel and cure the sick in that place.  This is also a sign that the Apostles do not themselves seek honors or rewards for the good they do, but only glory for their Lord.

“And as for those who do not welcome you, when you leave that town, shake the dust from your feet in testimony against them.”  Some towns will not receive them, even to listen to what they have to say, and will not bring their sick to the, despite their spreading reputation as healers.  These already reject the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  They choose ignorance and sickness rather than knowledge and grace.  It is one of the great mysteries why a person with nothing to lose by it but eternity to gain would reject the love of God.  We have to wonder at the hold that pride has on a person.  It is as though a person in a building consumed with fire refused to let a fireman help him down a ladder to safety, but would only leave if he could fly out of it on his own, like a bird.  He would rather die in agony than to give up his fantasy that he could take care of himself on his own terms, and that those who offer help at the peril of their own lives deserve their contempt.  Rejecting help, the Apostles were to leave them be and to go elsewhere, putting them out of their minds altogether, which is signified by their shaking the dust of the town’s streets from their feet.

“Then they set out and went from village to village proclaiming the good news and curing diseases everywhere.”  The Apostles went willingly and with zeal.  They preached the simple message the Lord gave them and told the people about the Lord Jesus.  They quoted his sayings and maybe retold his parables.  They drew crowds who wanted to hear them and to be cured.

As baptized Christians, we are commissioned by Christ to carry his Gospel to others.  We do not all do so in the same way, for “there is a diversity of gifts” (1 Corinthians 12, 4) so that some preach, some instruct, some heal, and some pray — for without prayer, no grace is given and the works of the others are impossible to accomplish.  So let us know what our gifts are, our vocations, so that we may carry out the commission of our Lord and return to him in joy.